Egypt Clerics Warn of 'Civil War' as Rallies Begin

28 Jun 2013
Reuters
Source: CNBC

Egypt's leading religious authority warned of "civil war" on Friday and called for calm after a member of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood was killed ahead of mass rallies aimed at forcing the president to quit.

"Vigilance is required to ensure we do not slide into civil war," the Al-Azhar institute said. In a statement broadly supportive of Islamist head of state Mohamed Mursi, it blamed "criminal gangs" who besieged mosques for street violence which the Brotherhood said has killed five supporters in a week.

There was no immediate sign of trouble as Islamists gathered round a Cairo mosque after weekly prayers to show support for Mursi. His opponents hope millions will turn out on Sunday to demand new elections, a year to the day since he was sworn in as Egypt's first freely elected leader.

"I came to support the legitimate order," said Ahmed al-Maghrabi, 37, a shopkeeper from the Nile Delta city of Mansoura whose hand bore grazes from street fighting there this week. "I am with the elected president. He needs to see out his term."

There was a mostly festive atmosphere in the hot sunshine, with vendors selling mango and cakes and banners flying. Some opposition gatherings were also under way. A handful of protesters watched security men ringing the presidential palace,

the focus for Sunday's Cairo rally. Mursi has moved elsewhere. The army, which heeded mass protests in early 2011 to push aside Hosni Mubarak, has warned it will intervene again if there is violence and to defend the "will of the people". Both sides believe that means the military may support their positions.

The United States, which funds Egypt's army as it did under Mubarak, has urged compromise and respect for election results.

Egypt's 84 million people, control of the Suez Canal and treaty with Israel all contribute to its global strategic importance.

Economy

In Alexandria, the second city, several thousand protesters marched along the seafront. Some fear the Brotherhood is intent on usurping the revolution to entrench its power and Islamic law.

Others were complaining mainly about economic stagnation. "I've nothing to do with politics, but with the state we're in now, even a stone would cry out," said 42-year-old accountant Mohamed Abdel Latif.

"There are no services, we can't find diesel or gasoline. We elected Mursi, but this is enough. Let him make way for someone else who can fix it."

"Dr. Mohamed Mursi's speech of yesterday only made us more determined in our call for an early presidential vote in order to achieve the goals of the revolution," the liberal opposition coalition said after its leaders met to consider a response.

"We are confident the Egyptian masses will go out in their millions in Egypt's squares and streets on June 30 to confirm their will to get the Jan. 25 revolution back on track."

It is hard to gauge how many may turn out but much of the population, even those sympathetic to Islamic ideas, are deeply frustrated by economic slump and many blame the government.

Previous protest movements since the fall of Mubarak have failed to gather momentum, however, among a population anxious for stability and fearful of further economic hardship.

Rights group says Egypt's Brotherhood incites sectarian hatred

18 hours ago
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News

CAIRO (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch accused Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday of inciting religious hatred that led to the lynching of four Shi'ite Muslims in Cairo this week.

Residents of the suburb of Zawiyat Abu Musallem surrounded a house where a prominent Shi'ite cleric had arrived on Sunday for a religious festival. They attacked the guests, killing at least four and mutilating their bodies.

Police arrested eight people over the killings.

"The brutal sectarian lynching of four Shia comes after two years of hate speech against the minority religious group, which the Muslim Brotherhood condoned and at times participated in," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the movement of President Mohamed Mursi, was not available for comment.

Conservative Sunni Muslims, fearing the spread of Shia Islam in Egypt, have increased their anti-Shi'ite rhetoric since a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in February, who called for a strategic alliance with Egypt.

Shi'ites, the majority in Iran, form a small minority of Egypt's 84 million population and keep a low profile.

"This horrific incident in Abu Musallem shows that Shi'ites can't even gather in the privacy of their homes to celebrate and heightens fear of persecution among all religious minorities in Egypt," Stork said.

President Mursi condemned the crime but his liberal opponents accuse him and his Muslim Brotherhood of allowing ultra-conservative Salafi allies to whip up anti-Shi'ite sentiment in return for their support.

Mursi was a guest of honor this month at a rally where a cleric described Shi'ites as heretics.

HRW's report said the investigation into the attack needed to look into the failure of police to intervene to halt the mob attack.

"The official response to the killings falls far short of what is needed to protect Shia in Egypt from future attack and protect their right to religious freedom," Human Rights Watch said.

(Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Robin Pomeroy)

INSIGHT-Ex-Qaeda allies ready to fight for Mursi in Luxor

1 hr 29 mins ago
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News

LUXOR, Egypt (Reuters) - When President Mohamed Mursi made a hardline Islamist governor ofLuxor, it seemed his latest folly to many in this city, and across Egypt, who depend on tourists already scared off by unrest since the revolution.

Yet nominating a member of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, remembered for a 1997 massacre of visitors in Luxor that some call "Egypt's 9/11", showed the growing importance to the beleaguered Mursi and hisMuslim Brotherhood of a group whose leadership includes at least one unrepentant former associate of Osama bin Laden.

That man, cleric Refai Taha, and other leaders of al-Gamaa and its parliamentary wing in Luxor told Reuters they renounced violence because Islamist rule had now been achieved, through elections - but they would take up arms again to defend Mursi and were committed eventually to establishing full Islamic law.

"There is freedom now, so violence is not necessary," Taha, 58, said in an interview last week at a hotel on the Nile. "The revolution changed the situation in Egypt in ways we wanted."

But like other senior figures in al-Gamaa he warned that anyone trying to force Mursi out - referring to the military that oppressed the Islamists for decades, or liberal opponents planning mass protests next Sunday - would be met with force.

"Violence begets violence," said Taha, recalling attacks on the old regime and its tourist industry which he, unlike others in al-Gamaa, went on advocating until Hosni Mubarak was ousted.

Al-Gamaa gave in to the uproar in the tourist industry and resigned the Luxor governor's post on Sunday - for the national good - after failing to reassure angry hoteliers who feared it would immediately ban beer and bare flesh, killing their trade just as the gunning down of 58 foreigners had done 16 years ago.

But its role is clearly expanding at the side of a president unable, or unwilling, to build a coalition beyond the Islamist camp. Such hardline allies may further polarise a still fragile state in ways that trouble the Western powers which abandoned Mubarak when Egyptians pushed him aside demanding democracy.

Al-Gamaa supporters formed a vocal contingent at a rally in Cairo on Friday, organised by the Brotherhood to show Islamist strength ahead of protests the hitherto divided opposition plans on June 30, the first anniversary of Mursi's inauguration.

Al-Gamaa leaders were among those giving veiled warnings of a violent response to any move against the elected leader; they included Tarek al-Zumar, jailed for life over the 1981 assassination of Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat, and Assem Abdel Maged, who once shared a cell with Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian who has led al Qaeda since bin Laden was killed.

Hardliners fear the end of the much bigger Brotherhood's hold on power would mean prison again for them, or death.

BIN LADEN

In Luxor, Taha blames the United States for his "rendition" from Damascus in 2001 to a life in Mubarak's jails. He was in Syria after time in Afghanistan with bin Laden and Zawahri and was seen by Washington as an heir to "blind cleric" Omar Abdel Rahman, al-Gamaa al-Islamiya's spiritual leader now serving a life term for a 1993 attack on New York's World Trade Center.

Until 2010, annual U.S. State Department lists of "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" described Taha as "missing" since 2001. He is not mentioned by name in subsequent editions of the list.

Freed when Mubarak fell, he denied a U.S. assertion that he signed a 1998 al Qaeda fatwa calling for attacks on the United States but he said its government was "oppressive just like our former regime" and said his main difference from Zawahri was in his aim of an Islamic state in Egypt, rather than global jihad.

Sitting in the lobby of a tourist hotel, largely empty since the revolution, clad in a beige robe, the white-bearded sheikh defined his goals and those of al Qaeda: "Sheikh Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri see a need to administer justice all over the world. We demand justice be administered in Egypt."

Asked if that would mean banning alcohol or revealing clothing for tourists - something Mursi's government says it will not do - Taha said: "Just as you in America require Muslims to abide by American law when they enter your country, Americans who enter Egypt should abide by Egyptian law."

Were his ideas those of al Qaeda? "The same ideas," he said. "When there is an oppressive regime. If there's an oppressive regime, we, like all people in the world, we fight oppression."

ORGANISED MOVEMENT

After the Luxor massacre, Taha split with a faction in al-Gamaa which declared a ceasefire; the group now appears united and Taha, back in the southern home region where he helped found the movement in the 1970s, seems to command respect from leaders of the political party it set up in 2011 to contest elections.

The Building and Development Party won 13 of 508 seats in the lower house of parliament, allied with the Brotherhood.

A senior party official in Luxor, Hussein Ahmed Shmeet, echoed the concerns of Taha and other al-Gamaa leaders that it was ready to use force if had to protect Mursi: "If the nation is being destroyed, we must defend ourselves and protect the legitimate president and the state institutions," he said.

"If the army and police cannot protect state institutions and we see violence, the representatives of the Islamic groups must take to the streets to protect the state institutions," Shmeet said, adding for emphasis: "We are very organised."

Opponents worry that Egypt's Islamists also intend to keep power by force, even if voters turn against them. Shmeet insisted, however, that the movement has embraced democracy.

Al-Gamaa's numbers are unclear but its claims to be able to mobilise "popular committees" to fix problems locally were corroborated by Brotherhood officials who said Mursi choice for governor was prompted by its success in using local tribal and family structures to bring order where it once sowed chaos.

"Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya members in Luxor were born here," said local Building and Development Party leader Mohamed Bakry. "They know everyone in Luxor, they're cousins, friends, neighbours - our relations are very strong and so we can solve problems."

What the party did not do was force its new governor through the picket lines of angry tour guides and restaurateurs who set up barricades round the local administration building last week and painted the gate with a sign: "No entry for terrorists."

Its moderation toward the demonstrators, Bakry said, should reassure those who doubt it had put its militant past behind it.

"Everything the media are saying is not true," he said of alarmist headlines about Mursi's choice of "terrorist governor".

"Today is proof of that," he said. "Because if we had wanted to, we could have done something ... We were capable of it."

FEAR AND HOSTILITY

Such veiled references to al-Gamaa's strength do little to appease the many of Luxor's half million people who depend on foreigners coming to see its 3,500-year-old temples and tombs.

"Religion and violence is all they know," said Walid Nowendi of the liberal opposition Dustour Party as protesters burned tyres to form a barrier to the governor's office.

Across the Nile, sweeping the same green swath through the desert that has nourished Egyptian civilisation for millennia, the temple of Queen Hatshepsut stands as forlorn in the sunshine as it did in the months after it witnessed the horror of six gunmen methodically shooting down 62 people in November 1997.

A lone tour bus and a handful of minivans sat under a baking sun in the parking lot. "You should have seen how crowded this place was before the revolution," said Ahmed Hageb, 24, who works in the cafeteria. "For two years, we've suffered as we did after the 1997 attack ... This is because of the Brotherhood."

Mursi, in a newspaper interview, assured Egyptians economic problems were being addressed and, defending his choice of Luxor governor, insisted there was nothing to fear from al-Gamaa - its party, he said, "operates within the rule of law".

(Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Anna Willard)

Israel airstrikes loom over US diplomacy on Syria

1 hr 8 mins ago
By BRADLEY KLAPPER | Associated Press
Source: Yahoo News

MOSCOW (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry is making his case to Russian President Vladimir Putin for Russia to take a tougher stance on Syria at a time when Israel's weekend air strikes against the beleaguered Mideast nation have added an unpredictable factor to the talks.

Kerry arrived Tuesday in Moscow for talks with the most powerful ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

Officials said Kerry hopes to change Moscow's thinking on Syria with two new angles: American threats to arm the Syrian rebels and evidence of chemical weapon attacks by the Assad regime.

Over the weekend, Israeli warplanes targeted what Israel claimed were caches of Iranian missiles bound for Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terror group. Such weapons would allow Hezbollah to strike Tel Aviv and as far as southern Israel from inside Lebanese territory.

Israel's willingness to hit Syrian targets it sees as threats to its own existence has complicated the Obama administration's internal debate over what to do about Syria.

Israel's actions put Damascus and Moscow on notice that the U.S. and its allies may not wait for an international green light to become more actively engaged in the Syrian conflict. The administration said last week it was rethinking its opposition to arming the Syrian rebels or taking other aggressive steps to turn the tide of the two-year-old civil war toward the rebels.

At the same time, Israeli involvement in the war carries risks. Instead of prodding Russia into calling for Assad's ouster, it could bring greater Arab sympathy for Assad and prompt deeper involvement from Iran and Hezbollah, actors committed as much to preserving Assad as to fighting the Jewish state.

Although Israel hasn't officially acknowledged it carried out the airstrikes, Syrian officials on Monday were blaming Israel, calling them a "declaration of war" that would cause the Jewish state to "suffer."

Russia, alongside China, has blocked U.S.-led efforts three times at the United Nations to pressure Assad into stepping down.

U.S. officials are hoping Syria's behavior could shift Russia's stance.

"We have consistently, in our conversations with the Russians and others, pointed clearly to Assad's behavior as proof that further support for the regime is not in the interest of the Syrian people or in the interest of the countries that have in the past supported Assad," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

U.S. officials said the administration doesn't believe the weekend activity will force President Barack Obama's hand, noting that the main U.S. concern is the use of chemical weapons by Assad, while Israel's top concern is conventional weapons falling into the hands of its enemies.

The chemical weapons argument is now under surprising attack, with former war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte saying over the weekend she and fellow members of a four-member U.N. human rights panel have indications the nerve agent sarin was used by Syrian rebel forces, not by government forces.

That theory was rejected by U.S. officials. The State Department said the administration continues to believe that Syria's large chemical weapons stockpiles remain securely in the regime's control.

The Obama administration opened the door to new military options in Syria after declaring last week it strongly believed the Assad regime used chemical weapons in two attacks in March. Two days after that announcement, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said arming the Syrian rebels was a policy consideration.

Until now, U.S. efforts to bolster the rebels' fighting skills and gather intelligence on the groups operating inside Syria have been limited to small training camps in Jordan, according to two U.S. officials who weren't authorized to speak about secret activities and demanded anonymity.

There are several options for escalation, ranging from arming the rebels to targeted airstrikes and no-fly zones. However, arming the rebels is the most likely escalation, officials said.

While the Israeli actions have made Kerry's Russia efforts more unpredictable, some in Congress tried to be optimistic.

Maryland Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he hopes Kerry can persuade Russia to use its influence to convince the besieged Syrian leader that he should step down.

"Hopefully the cooperation on the (Boston) Marathon bombing will open the door there," Ruppersberger said.

After visiting Moscow for the first time since he became secretary of state, Kerry will travel to Rome for talks with members of the new Italian government, as well as meetings with Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh to discuss Middle East peace prospects.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

Spoils of war: Captured cousin takes FSA closer to Lion's Den

October 7th, 2012 Source: Albawaba Syrian opposition forces have captured Housam al-Assad, the cousin of the embattled President Bashar al-Assad, a senior religious figure has announced. Assad’s cousin was arrest by al-Farouq brigade of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Sheikh Adnan Al Arour, a Sunni Muslim preacher and a major Salafist leader in Syria, announced on his Twitter account Sunday. “Housam al-Assad, the cousin of dog Bashar has been captured by al-Farouq Brigade and brought him in like a pig, so that you know, oh Russia and Iran who the Syrian people are,” Sheikh Arour said. The sheikh has become one of the Syrian uprising’s symbolic figures and a source of motivation for those who aspire for ousting the regime of President Al Assad in Syria. The 73-year-old Aroor fled Syria under the rule of Hafez Al Assad following the 1982 Massacre in his hometown of Hama and settled in Saudi Arabia ever since. Sheikh Aroor is seen by many as a moderate Sunni cleric who supports democratic reforms and who has long stood against the Baathist regime. Meanwhile, on the frontlines Syrian troops shelled areas of Homs city and the Houla region where they clashed with rebels on Saturday, as a monitoring group said rebels seized a village near the Turkish border. Rebels captured Khirbat al-Joz in the northwest province of Idlib near the border after a fierce battle in which 25 troops and three insurgents were killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Nearly 80 percent of towns and villages along the Turkish border are outside the control of Damascus, according to the group. AFP correspondent have passed through large swathes of territory in the Idlib and Aleppo provinces of northern Syria that have fallen outside government control, with residents managing their own affairs. Four civilians, including a woman, and six rebels were killed in the Houla region of the central province of Homs in clashes and shelling by regime forces, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood to boycott early elections

13 July 2012
Source:BBC News Middle East

Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood has said its political party, the Islamic Action Front, will boycott early parliamentary elections due by the end of the year.

The Islamists said recent changes to the election law did not go far enough, and warned of further public protests.

But they said they might reverse the decision if there were serious reforms.

A boycott would be a blow for King Abdullah, who has promised reform in the hope of avoiding anti-government unrest in the wake of the Arab Spring.
Two-ballot row

The Brotherhood said the decision for the Islamic Action Front (IAF) to boycott the elections was approved by the organisation's advisory council.

"The regime has failed to meet reform demands by Jordanians, including the Islamist movement," the Brotherhood's deputy leader, Zaki Bani Rusheid, told the AFP news agency.

The main dispute is over the new electoral law, which allows each voter two separate ballots: one for representatives from local districts and one for candidates competing under a proportional representation at the national level.

But the Brotherhood - and other opposition movements - says an increase of seats allocated for party candidates in the 140-strong lower house of parliament - from 17 to 27 - is not enough.

The Brotherhood is reportedly pressing for at least 30% of the seats in the House of Representatives to be contested under proportional representation.

It argues that the local district system favours tribal candidates.

The IAF boycotted the last elections in 2010, saying it was marginalised at the expense of supporters of King Abdullah.

Correspondents say the Brotherhood's latest move is likely to pile more pressure on King Abdullah, as his promised political and economic reforms appear to be stalling.

While demonstrations have been generally smaller and more peaceful than elsewhere in the region, Jordanians have been pressing for a greater say in how their country is run, and demanding corruption and unemployment be tackled.

Simmering anger among Jordan opposition

24 August 2012
By Shaimaa Khalil BBC News, Amman
Source: BBC News Middle East

Egypt and Tunisia have become examples of how political Islam continues to gain clout in the wake of the Arab Spring.

In Syria there are many questions about what a post Bashar al-Assad leadership will look like and whether the Muslim Brotherhood will finally find their way to power there.

But in Jordan it is a different story. Despite being the largest and most organised opposition force, here the Muslim Brotherhood struggle to gain any political power.

Their aim is to follow the lead of their parent movement in Egypt.

After 80 years, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are not just a part of mainstream politics. They are the mainstream; Egypt's new president Mohammed Mursi comes from the heart of the movement.

The Brotherhood in Jordan are different. For one, they have never been as harshly persecuted by the system as their Egyptian counterparts.

But they have also never seemed to gain as much political power.

They rally people in the streets in big numbers. But the peaceful demonstrations, as they always describe them, seem to go no further.
Flawed law?

The Muslim Brotherhood's political wing, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), has been organising the rallies for over a year now.

The demands have been the same since the demonstrations began: political reform, fighting corruption and modifying Jordan's controversial election law.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

We will not take part in forged elections”

Hamza Mansour Islamic Action Front

The Brotherhood claim the law does not allow fair representation.

Hamza Mansour, secretary general of the IAF, insists that they will boycott early parliamentary elections due by the end of the year.

"We will not take part in forged elections. This elections law does exactly that," he said.

"We have agreed on another draft law with the other political powers that gives a fair representation, taking into consideration each constituency's population and geography."

The Brotherhood have a very large support base in some of the constituencies and were planning to field more than one candidate in the hope of more seats in the parliament.

But the election law does not allow them to do so as it only allows one vote per constituency.

Their opponents say the Muslim Brotherhood want a law that serves them and only them.

But this is not Jordan's only problem and the Muslim Brotherhood is not the only strand of opposition here.
Poster-burning

Anger on the street led to what many Jordanians here called "the unthinkable".

Oday Abu Issa is a 19-year-old Jordanian student who describes himself as part of a popular youth opposition movement.

He was jailed for two months after burning a poster of King Abdullah last January.

This was the first incident of its kind and Oday says he wanted to send a message to the leadership.

"They continue to marginalise the opposition forces," he says.

"They don't recognise any opposition movement except the Islamists. This will provoke even more anger in the street.

"Opposition is not just the Islamists. We have nationalist, leftist, popular and youth movements, and they need to talk to all of us."

But unlike Egypt and Tunisia, the youth movements in Jordan have so far not been able to make a real difference.

They are still not popular or relevant enough on the Jordanian street.

"The problem is we still don't have a clear plan and a comprehensive programme," Oday says.

"There are many of us and we come from different backgrounds. We need a clear roadmap to unite us."
Tribal anger

The deteriorating economy and the diminishing role of the public sector have affected other groups of Jordanian society, including the tribes, who have always been known for their allegiance to the King and the government.

Jumana Ghneimat is editor-in-chief of the Jordanian Ghad newspaper. She says the anger among the tribes is a dangerous development.

"The tribes feel abandoned.

"They have long depended on a support system that has been provided to them by the King and the government and now they are asked to depend on themselves without the proper means to do so."

She goes on: "It started for economic reasons but now, they too are asking for political change.

"I think that the leadership's problems with the tribes are much more dangerous than its political brawls with the Muslim Brotherhood."

The government meanwhile has said that it will not change the election law and that it is up to the Muslim Brotherhood and the rest of the opposition to take part in the political process.

But this does not satisfy an already very frustrated public, who see no end in sight for their economic problems.

Jordan's limited resources are being stretched still further with the growing number of Syrian refugees entering the country every day.

Jordanian authorities 'suppressing free speech'

25 April 2012
Source: BBC News Middle East

The Jordanian authorities are violating people's right to free speech and undermining the credibility of reform efforts, a human rights group has said.

Human Rights Watch said a journalist and the publisher of the Gerasa News website had been charged with "subverting the system of government".

The charges related to an article about King Abdullah's alleged intervention in a corruption investigation, it added.

HRW said the case was the fifth such incident in Arab kingdom this year.

Sahar al-Muhtasab and her brother Jamal al-Muhtasab, who both worked for Gerasa News, had been charged on 23 April, a statement said.

They had both worked on an article that quoted a member of parliament as saying King Abdullah had issued instructions to members of a parliamentary committee not to refer a former minister to court on corruption charges.

Ms Muhtasab told HRW that a military prosecutor at the State Security Court had insisted King Abdullah was at the forefront of the fight against corruption, and that it was forbidden to imply otherwise.

Christoph Wilcke Human Rights Watch

The prosecutor charged them both with "subverting the system of government in the kingdom", a crime that article 149 of Jordan's penal code punishes with hard labour.

Ms Muhtasab was released on 5,000 Jordanian dinars' ($7,050; £4,366) bail, but the prosecutor ordered her brother detained without bail for 14 days at a prison in the city of Salt, west of Amman, where he remains.

Christoph Wilcke, HRW's senior Middle East researcher, said: "Jordan cannot claim to be making democratic reforms while prosecutors hunt down journalists doing their job."

The incident is the latest in a series in which people have faced charges for making speeches or attending demonstrations deemed critical of the government.

In January, a man was charged with "undermining his majesty's dignity" for burning a poster of King Abdullah. A former MP was charged the following month with "advocating a republican form of government". And in March, two separate groups of protesters were arrested in Amman.

"Jordan's talk of reform is meaningless as long as the law deprives citizens of meeting and speaking freely, especially about politics and their leaders," Mr Wilcke said. "The kingdom risks earning a reputation for repression and intolerance."

Jordan's King Abdullah endorses controversial media law

18 September 2012
Source: BBC News Middle East

Jordan's King Abdullah of has endorsed a new media law which critics say will stifle freedom of expression online.

The legislation requires "electronic publications" in Jordan to get a licence from the government.

It also gives the authorities the power to block and censor websites, whose owners will be held responsible for comments posted on them.

Human Rights Watch accused the government of using such legislation to "go after opponents and critics".

Media professionals and ordinary citizens regularly found themselves charged with and convicted of criminal offences related to speech, it said.

In April, the State Security Court military prosecutor detained the editor of the Gerasa News website for trying to "undermine the system of government" after it published an article about the king's alleged intervention in a corruption investigation.

The case remains open but the trial has not yet started.
'Check the truth'

Human Rights Watch said the dangers of the amendments to the Press and Publications Law endorsed on Monday arose from its vague definition of the "electronic publications" which would be affected, the new executive power to block websites, and the unreasonable restrictions on online content, including comments posted by website users.

The legislation's definition of electronic publication is "an electronic site on the internet with a fixed address that offers publication services".

Any that publish "news, investigations, articles, or comments, which have to do with the internal or external affairs of the kingdom" must register with the commerce ministry and get a licence from the culture ministry.

The culture ministry will have the authority to block websites that are either unlicensed or deemed to be in violation of any law, and to close the website's offices without providing a reason or obtaining a court order.

The owner, editor and director of an electronic publication will share the responsibility for comments posted on their website, and be obliged not to publish any "containing information or facts unrelated to the news item or if the truth has not been checked", or if they "violate laws".

"The government has not shown a valid reason for prohibiting user comments that are deemed unrelated to the item that triggered the comment, a prohibition that appears to be arbitrary interference in the right to free expression," HRW said.

"Obliging website managers to check the truth of comments is also not a valid restriction on freedom of speech, which includes the freedom to express unproven statements or even falsehoods."

The Associated Press estimated that about 400 Jordanian websites would be affected by the new law.

The Press and Publications Law and the penal code already criminalise defamation, including libel and slander, including against entities that are not people, such as government institutions, symbols and religions.

Good Jordanians don’t protest: corrupt politicians call in their militias to stop activists

September 10th, 2012
Source: Albawaba

It is an often told story that former prime minister of Jordan, Abdul Raouf Rawabdeh stole millions from the country during his time in office. The Irbid native was only in power for fifteen months but rumors of corruption persist to this day.

So it came as no surprise that he was a target for opposition group, United Jordan Opposition (UJO). The activists were looking to take their allegations of corruption to the worst culprits in Jordan.

First on the list was Dr. Imad Fakhoury, Director of the King’s Office. UJO members turned up to his house and posed the allegations without incident.

But it was a different story when they got to the former prime minister’s villa, set in a sleep suburb of the capital. After three days camped out on his doorstep, the 73-year-old ex-politician called in reinforcements to deal with the pesky activists.

14 protestors arrived by car at the house on Sunday and were met by nearly 1000 members of Rawabdeh’s tribe, complete with AK47s and wooden bats: it was hardly a fair fight.

Leader of the activists, Husam al Abdallat, was beaten so badly that he spent the night in the ICU, giving interviews to local TV networks. In scenes reminiscent of the beginning of the Egyptian revolution, Abdallat spoke out against the impunity of tribal leaders in the Kingdom.

His attorney and cousin, Moussa al Abdallat, put out a statement last night calling the ex-PM’s tribe a ‘militia’:

“My relative’s life is in danger. The regime is responsible for what happened,” he said.

In a strange twist of fate, members of Abdallat’s tribe began rallying to get revenge for their relative’s injuries. Husam said he was currently fielding angry phone calls and trying to avoid all-out tribal war.

The events were a hotly discussed topic on local TV stations with commentators coming on air to argue the case. But there was very little support for the activists in Jordan. In fact, most of the talking heads said they shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Sidelining the whole issue of corruption, one said: “The Egyptians lost their kindness when they had their revolution. Good kind hearted Jordanians wouldn’t do this.”

Hamas to help Egypt find Sinai terrorists

Aug. 17, 2012
Source:UPI

GAZA, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Hamas said it is dedicated to helping Egypt find the those responsible for killing 16 Egyptian border guards in the Sinai Peninsula.

The announcement came Thursday as rumors surfaced that Hamas and Egypt formed a joint security committee to investigate the Aug. 5 attack, The Jerusalem Post reported.

"We are doing everything we can to help Egypt in gathering information and carrying out other security measures to reveal the identity of the perpetrators of the massacre," said Ehab Ghissin, spokesman of the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

Hamas and Egyptian authorities are working together "on all levels" to solve the case and bring the perpetrators to trial, Ghissin said.

Syria rebels claim upper hand as battle for Aleppo grinds towards stalemate

8 August 2012
Martin Chulov
Source:The Guardian

The day started in Salahedin just as it had for the past fortnight, with rebels under fierce assault from a nearby ring road and the Syrian Air Force blitzing them from the skies.

Just before daybreak, however, the frontline – thus far seemingly solid – began to wobble. Rebels briefly withdrew as the regime pushed forward with men and tanks. This, it seemed, was the start of the battle for Aleppo, an inexorable showdown for which the whole city had been nervously preparing.

Then, only several hours after daybreak, the regime retreated and the weary guerillas returned to their sandbags. Government claims to have conquered the enemy stronghold were false, as were the rebels' later claims to have breached regime lines. Nothing seems to be going to script in this war.

All the might that the forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad can muster is now camped just over a large bank of land to the east of Salahedin, the suburb of Aleppo that has become the focal point of the conflict. All the men the guerrilla force can assemble are holed up in crumbling buildings, the closest of them only 200m from the nearest regime tank.

Yet the decisive battle that most in Aleppo seemed to have feared is slowly giving way to another – even more dreaded – reality. Stalemate, with neither side willing or able to advance. A new sense is beginning to settle in that neither Salahedin, nor the rest of Syria's second city, will see an end to the fighting any time soon.

Despite its superior numbers and weaponry, the army appears in no hurry to bring the uprising here to an end. The siege that has crippled the city is likely to get far worse.

"This will be a second Baba Amr," said Sheikh Salim al-Hoss, as he rested under a mulberry tree in a commandeered schoolyard just outside Aleppo. "They are going to wear us down. They think they have time on their side."

Hoss was sitting with members of a military council, who were all breaking their daily Ramadan fast on Tuesday night, largely in silence. Snipers had killed two young rebels from their unit in the late afternoon and the rush to bury them before sunset seemed to have numbed the men.

The effect on one of the dead men's fathers was more profound. He stood trembling and bewildered later in the evening as he received condolences in a hastily erected mourning tent. A tear ran down his face as lines of wellwishers reached for his hand.

Just before noon he had spoken to his 24-year-old son, Ala'a Tamur, by phone in between battles on Salahedin's main frontline. Just before dinner he buried him.

"Be proud you have a martyr, uncle," one of the men's colleagues told the boy's bereft father. The 73-year-old stared and nodded.

Street 15 in Salahedin now resembles Leningrad in its darkest days, and the suburb itself is in far worse shape than when the Guardian last visited on Saturday. Most streets on the eastern side are now impassable by car. Broken sewage and water pipes and food leftovers have formed a festering stew over the few surfaces that aren't littered with the flotsam and jetsam of war. And Salahedin has a new arrival – flies, which swarm around anything organic. They are so thick in some parts that rebels look for detours to avoid them. As they do they need to avoid trampling on the only other thing that seems to be living at ground zero of the battle for Syria – kittens.

Rebels have taken in many of them, and it's not uncommon to find a gnarled, sweaty guerrilla sleeping on the floor of a commandeered flat with an abandoned kitten asleep on his chest.

Two men sleeping in what passes for a first aid clinic in one part of Salahedin had to throw their new pets aside late on Wednesday, when a wounded rebel appeared like a ghost in their darkened doorway. He fell on a foam mattress clutching his left side. "A sniper, haram," he said. "I was going to meet the defector."

"Press hard [on the wound], press until it hurts," one bystander said. The men instead offered caresses and comforting words, then bundled him into the back of a 4x4, which rushed him away.

Snipers continue to filter into Salahedin despite the almost impossible journey to get here. "We had four in this quarter alone today," said a rebel from Damascus, who himself defected three months ago. "There would be many more if they could find a way."

Recent senior defectors, among them two colonels from Aleppo who made their way to a nearby town on Tuesday, claimed that the fear of large numbers of defections if a ground attack was launched was shaping regime tactics.

"If they send the army in, they will throw off their clothes and leave," one of the men said. They want to sit back and bomb, just like they did in Homs."

The defectors also claimed that jets would bomb Aleppo and the eastern hinterland between 3am and 5am. On cue, the jets arrived. The fulfilled prediction means the two officers will now be asked to help devise tactics to repel the assault.

Whoever can prevail in a war of attrition will prevail in Aleppo and likely in the overall uprising. Though battle-weary and at times despairing, and still underprepared, the rebel forces appear to have the stamina to see the fight to a conclusion.

Whether the people of Aleppo share their commitment is yet to be determined. The few cars moving on the largely empty streets were mostly carrying refugees. Those who remain have little reason to fully embrace the uprising that is now affecting all of them.

As the Guardian left Aleppo late on Wednesday, our car was flagged down by a smiling rebel standing next to a thin 23-year-old. He had defected an hour before from the air force intelligence headquarters in the west of the city. Among Syria's pervasive security apparatus, none strike more fear into citizens.

The defector, Khaldoun al-Shabibi, said that the tables were, however, turning. "They are terrified in there," he said. "Every time there is gunfire anywhere near the building they shoot crazily at anything outside.

"It was never like that before. It's a sign that things are changing."

Egypt's President fires Intelligence Chief

2012-08-09
Source: Downsum

Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi has fired his spy chief Murad Muwafi in a major shake-up of military and intelligence ranks extending to the head of the Republican Guard and the governor of North Sinai.

Wednesday's decision comes several days after a deadly ambush in Sinai killed 16 soldiers, prompting an unprecedented military crackdown in the peninsula, but Morsi's spokesman did not say whether the attack had prompted the changes.

Morsi also ordered Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the defence minister, to replace the head of military police Hamdi Badeen, his spokesman Yassir Ali said in a televised statement on Wednesday.

Morsi appointed Mohammed Rafaat Abdel Wahad Shehata as the interim head of General Intelligence.

Earlier on Wednesday, Muwafi, himself a former governor of North Sinai, issued a rare public statement saying that his agency had forewarning of the weekend attack that killed the soldiers.

But he said the intelligence did not specify where the attack would take place and he had passed it on to the "relevant authorities," adding that his powerful agency's role was only to collect information.

The shuffle extended to Abdel Wahab Mabruk, the governor of North Sinai where the attack took place.

Morsi is likely to have reached the decisions with the military, which ruled the country between president Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February 2011 and Morsi's inauguration as his successor in June.

The head of the Presidential Guard, the director of Security in Cairo and the director of Central Security Forces were also fired.

Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from Cairo, said that it was clear that Morsi was trying to take control of the situation.

She said the dismissals were not just about Sunday night's border attack, but that it was also about the funerals on Tuesday of the 16 soldiers, which the president and the prime minister did not attend because of security reasons.

"That's something that really upset a lot of people here who saw it as a national tragedy. He's definitely trying to show them who's boss."

The dismissed officials were not appointed by Morsi but rather by either the Supreme council of Armed Forces or Mubarak, said our correspondent.

"There has been this struggle between these agencies and the new president ... who is trying to say that this is a new era. An era where there will be accountability, as opposed to the years under Mubarak where there was a spy chief that survived many terror attacks including ones similar to this one in the Sinai," she said.

Air strikes in Sinai

The developments coincided with air strikes in the Sinai region close to the border with Gaza, which the state-run Ahram news website said left more than 20 people dead.

The air strikes on positions in the town of Sheikh Zouaid on followed the deaths of 16 border guards at the weekend in an attack by gunmen whose identities are yet to be determined.

Witnesses in Sheikh Zouaid, about 10km from Gaza, said they saw two military jets and heard sounds of explosions. Other witnesses in a nearby area said they saw three cars hit.

"We have succeeded in entering al-Toumah village, killed 20 terrorists and destroyed three armoured cars belonging to terrorists. Operations are still ongoing," an army commander told the Reuters news agency.

The strikes followed clashes between armed men and security forces at several security checkpoints overnight in the Sinai region.

Armed men opened fire on checkpoints in al-Arish and in the nearby town of Rafah on the border with Gaza, according to a reporter for Reuters and state media.

Six people were injured in the attacks late on Tuesday night, including two police officers, three army soldiers and one civilian, sources told Al Jazeera. The civilian is said to be in critical condition.

A cement production company in Sinai, which belongs to the military, was also attacked. Two gunmen suspected in that attack have reportedly been arrested.

Exchanges of gunfire continued late into the night, state news agency MENA said, adding that security forces had closed the road where the assault took place.

'Armed tribes stronghold'

Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from the city of al-Arish, said: "Over 48 hours since that audacious and shocking attack on the Egyptian military post here in Sinai, it seems that the army has decided to hit back if you will."

"We've have heard that helicopters from the airforce, and ... tanks and other personnel carriers moved towards an area in Sinai which is essentially being seen as the stronghold of many of the armed tribes and armed assailants," he said.

"The military it seems has decided to strike back against the people they believe were behind these attacks."

Egyptian security officials say it is the first time that the army has fired missiles in Sinai since the 1973 war with Israel to recapture the peninsula.

Lawlessness in the rugged desert region bordering Israel has spread since the fall of Mubarak in an uprising 18 months ago and the political instability that has followed.

Misrepresenting the Syrian Revolution

2 Aug 2012
By Leila Nachawati for ISN Security Watch
Source: ISN Security Watch

If one wishes to frame the current conflict in Syria in black and white terms, then it is a conflict between those who are comfortable with the status quo and those who are not. People from different religions -- Christians, Shia and Sunni Muslims, Alawi, Druze, Ismaili -- and ethnic groups -- Palestinians, Iraqis, Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians -- may be found on either side of the divide. And although the Alawi community (to which the ruling Assad family belongs) has long dominated the government and key military positions, people from each group have benefited from a system of institutionalized corruption and injustice. The uprising that started in March 2011 challenges that system as a whole, regardless of the religious elements. If one wishes to reduce the conflict down to its essence, one should focus on this aspect rather than any religious or ethnic overlays.

Despite the violence the regime has displayed -- and its attempt to exploit sectarian, ethnic and religious elements to present itself as necessary to maintain cohesion -- the goal of the Syrian revolution remains the same: to overthrow the regime and make way for a country where justice, freedom and dignity are respected. However, now that the country has entered a stage where the days of the Assad regime may be numbered, we are witnessing an international tendency to assess the situation with analysis that disregards the political and sociological aspects and instead focuses on religious and sectarian elements. What should be noted is that these analyses are directly dependent on each country´s geostrategic interests.

(Over-)Simplifying a complex reality

Religious and sectarian readings fall short of capturing the reality of a complex and diverse Syrian society where co-existence has persisted for decades, despite attempts to turn groups of population against one another. A Syrian journalist (name known to the author) told the ISN that sectarian clashes will happen "and it should not surprise anyone, given Assad's support in the past for radical groups - in Lebanon and Iraq – and the way he has promoted sectarianism as a way to keep people divided and frightened."

She also noted that some small, destructive cells "can have a disproportionately big impact, but this does not mean that the revolution has become sectarian as such. In fact the revolutionary camp is careful - in every address, statement and declaration - to make reference to there being room for every Syrian group in the future Syria."

According to Syrian blogger Yassin Swehat, a very complex reality is being increasingly simplified and therefore dramatically diverging from the narrative of activists on the ground. In an interview with the ISN, Swehat argued that this demonstrates the inability of many in the international community to see Syrians “as anything more than tribes and religious communities who follow irrational impulses and are deprived of all historic, economic and socio-political context.­­”

Geostrategic interests at stake

Every geostrategic power has something to gain from the depiction of Syrian society as divided and fragmented. Unlike other uprisings in the region, the Syrian revolution has, it could be argued, no real allies. Russia and China, for example, have been quite consistent in their support for the Syrian regime. By supporting Assad - who claims to be fighting Islamist terrorist gangs and a Western conspiracy against the country - Russia and China have nevertheless displayed their own power ambitions. Through military aid (and by replicating the narrative propagated by pro-Assad sources) they seek to present themselves as an alternative to the influence of the United States and its allies.

Iran continues to support the Assad regime for similar reasons. By portraying the Syrian uprising as Western-, Israeli- and Saudi-backed,’ Iran’s narrative aims to promote Shia hegemony across the region. At a press conference on 28 July, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Akbar Salehi announced that "whoever thinks there will be a regime change in Syria is being very naïve." And when asked about whether Iran would resort to the mutual self-defense pact formed with Syria to protect the Assad regime, an explicit denial was noticeably absent.

Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, needs a narrative to counter Iran’s. Riyadh supports the Free Syrian Army by portraying it as part of a religious struggle between the Sunni faith and the allegedly anti-religious Assad regime. At the same time, the Saudi regime is fearful of the Syrian revolution being framed as a liberation movement – a sentiment that could spread to Saudi Arabia, where the legitimacy of the ruling monarchy is increasingly being questioned. The most profitable scenario, therefore seems to be a military struggle in which neither the regime nor the Free Syrian Army succeed -- a struggle that would wear Syrians out and weaken the country as a whole.

Counter-intuitive as it may seem Israel may once have had a good ally in Syria. Instead, deterioration of central authority in Syria could re-activate conflict over the Golan Heights and make attacks on Israeli-held territory more likely. A long struggle and a weakening of Syria would therefore also be the most positive scenario for Israel. Viewing the Assad regime as ‘a lesser evil’ is seemingly apparent in the US’ public stance, which shifted from being openly critical to more lenient following a meeting between President Barack Obama and Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak in February 2012.

The US’ and European Union´s most recent statements regarding Syria reveal the disconnection between international interests and the true needs and demands of Syrians. Both powers seem eager to support retired Brigadier Manaf Tlass as the politician to lead a post-Assad Syria. A pillar of the Syrian establishment, Tlass is the son of former Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass. A fact worth noting is that the elder Tlass was in office during the 1982 Hama massacre, an event which reportedly left more than 10, 000 dead. The younger Tlass is a member of Bashar al-Assad's inner circle and closely associated with the abuses of the Assad regime. Indeed his defection and announcement that he intends to preserve state institutions was received with scorn by activists.

The most complete revolution

Despite the loss of human life, the hundreds of thousands displaced or forced to flee and the devastation being wreaked on the country, prolonging the armed confrontation seems to be the most positive scenario from the viewpoint of certain geostrategic powers. Delegitimizing the revolution and diluting its proclamations of freedom and justice in favor of religious and ethnic framings are not useful for Syrians but suit outside powers.

Despite attempts to hijack it, the Syrian revolution continues. Defections increase as the Syrian army becomes increasingly desperate and violent, killing more than a hundred civilians a day. Thousands continue to demonstrate all over the country, especially on Fridays: these days continue to be given a different name every week to honor the cities, the victims and the values of the revolution. Syrians continue to question the regime as a whole as an oppressive system, beyond any religious components.

For Syrian activist Sara Ajlyakin, "this is the most radical and complete revolution because it is against the regime in its entirety. Syrians are fighting alone against its figures, its extensions, its capital. Cosmetic change is not possible. If the revolution succeeds the regime will fall entirely" she told the ISN.

Egypt president seeks talks over parliament crisis

20 hrs ago
By Edmund Blair and Marwa Awad | Reuters
Source: Yahoo News


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Islamist president said on Wednesday he wanted talks with the judiciary and political powers to defuse a crisis over him trying reinstate parliament in defiance of generals who dissolved it last month based on a court ruling.

Mohamed Mursi's statement appeared to be a call for a truce to prevent the crisis, less than two weeks into his presidency, from boiling over into open confrontation with the military council or the judges in his battle to wrest power.

It was the latest twist in a legal wrangle that masks a broader struggle for control of the Arab world's biggest nation that pits Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood against a military that was in charge for six decades and an establishment still filled with officials from the era of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

"There will be consultations among all political forces, institutions and the supreme council of judicial authorities to find the best way out of this situation in order to overcome this stage together," Mursi's statement said.

The saga began when the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled on June 14, shortly before Mursi was elected, that the Islamist-led lower house was void and the then-ruling army dissolved it. The president recalled parliament this week but was slapped down in another court ruling hours after it convened on Tuesday.

Mursi's move had risked a showdown with the army, long used to having their man in charge. Previous presidents had all been drawn from military ranks and had for most of the time since the king was ousted in 1952 repressed the 84-year-old Brotherhood.

The United States, which hands Egypt's army a $1.3 billion subsidy each year, had urged dialogue to end the row.

According to his statement, Mursi said he was "committed to the rulings of Egyptian judges and very keen to manage state powers and prevent any confrontation".

For many Egyptians, though, the stand-off threatens further uncertainty that has plagued the nation since Mubarak was toppled by mass protests in February 2011, sending the economy into a slump and tipping many deeper into poverty.

The Brotherhood also faces anger from liberals and others, frustrated by what they see as a power grab by Islamists, the biggest political beneficiaries of the uprising against Mubarak. They have accused Mursi of riding roughshod over the judiciary.

Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali, in a comment on the statement, said Mursi wanted to "find a way out of the legislative vacuum caused by the dissolution of parliament".

He said the "problem was not bringing back this (existing) parliament" but added it did not make sense, from a constitutional point of view, to hand legislative power to the military. Mursi, when he recalled parliament, also said new elections would be held once a constitution was in place.

BOXED IN

After parliament was dissolved, the army awarded itself the legislative role, a move that analysts said would have boxed Mursi in and hampered his policy program.

Although liberals criticized the Brotherhood for reconvening parliament, many opposed the army for taking lawmaking powers. They could be placated, in part, with a deal to shift that role to an independent body instead of the existing parliament, declared void by the court over flaws in the way it was elected.

Leftist Hamdeen Sabahy, a losing presidential contender, had urged Mursi to respect the constitutional court ruling to help "exit the current crisis" but also called for legislative authority to be passed from the army to a separate body.

Taking legislative powers was one way for the military to keep its hand on the tiller after handing executive office to Mursi, helping it defend its privileges and status.

But diplomats say it could also depend on a judiciary, which has a streak of anti-Islamist sentiment.

Senior Brotherhood official Mahmoud Ghozlan, speaking on Tuesday, accused the army of using the Supreme Constitutional Court against the country's first freely elected leader.

"It is part of a power struggle between the military council and the president who represents the people and in which the military council is using the law and the judiciary to impose its will," he said.

Although many were surprised at how swiftly Mursi acted to defy the military, few are in doubt that Islamists have a long war of attrition on their hands to push back the army and reform an establishment packed with Mubarak-era officials.

More battles lie ahead, such as a debate over the writing of a new constitution. The army, in its decree last month, gave itself the right to form a new constitution-writing body if the one picked by parliament hits an obstacle. An earlier constituent assembly was dissolved by a court.

Turkey is the closest regional example where such a struggle has taken years. The powerful army there has gradually been rolled back by the AK Party, which has Islamist roots.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday Egypt's military council was "ignoring the power of the people and by not accepting the current parliament, it is a real affront to the power of the people.

"We believe in our hearts that President Mursi will overcome this difficult and arduous period through consultation, dialogue and calm."

State media reported Mursi began a two day trip to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. Saudi and other Gulf states have been wary of the rise of Islamists in Egypt and across the region for fear they could unsettle their own populations.

(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed and Dina Zayed; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Alison Williams)

Defector lashes Assad, troops raid Damascus suburb

1 hr 36 mins ago
By Mariam Karouny and Erika Solomon | Reuters
Source: Yahoo News

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The first ambassador to abandon Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called on the army to "turn your guns on the criminals" of the government, as troops swarmed into a suburb of the capital on Thursday to flush out rebels.

Nawaf al-Fares, who has close ties to the security services, was Syria's ambassador to its neighbor Iraq, one of its few friends in the region.

Coming just days after the desertion of Manaf Tlas, a brigadier general in the elite Republican Guard who grew up with the president, Fares's defection gave the anti-Assad uprising one of its biggest boosts in 16 months of bloodshed.

Tlas, the son of a veteran former Syrian defense minister, has made no public comment since fleeing to Paris. But Fares posted a video statement on Facebook on Wednesday that repeatedly said government forces had been killing civilians.

"I declare that I have joined, from this moment, the ranks of the revolution of the Syrian people," he said.

"I ask ... the members of the military to join the revolution and to defend the country and the citizens. Turn your guns on the criminals from this regime ...

"Every Syrian man has to join the revolution to remove this nightmare and this gang," he said, accusing the Assad family and its allies of corruption and "destroying society" for 40 years.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Fares was now in Qatar, one of the Gulf states overtly supporting the rebels and calling for Assad to go.

"He is a man of strong military and security background," Zebari told reporters in Paris. "We were surprised by his defection because he was a loyal member of the regime."

Assad's crackdown on what began as a broad, peaceful pro-democracy movement helped turn it into an armed rebellion, but the insurgents know they must erode the loyalty and conviction of his establishment to loosen its hold on power.

The defection was seized on by Assad's opponents and by Western and Sunni Arab powers who insist that Assad must leave power in any political settlement for Syria.

"RELIEVED OF HIS DUTIES"

In Damascus, a terse government statement said: "The Syrian Foreign Ministry declares that Nawaf al-Fares has been relieved of his duties and he no longer has any link to our embassy in Baghdad or the foreign ministry. They embassy in Iraq will continue carrying out its normal duties."

While the insurgents cannot match the army's firepower, they have managed to establish footholds in towns, cities and villages across Syria, often prompting Assad's forces to respond with helicopter gunships and artillery.

On Thursday, residents reported the first bombardment of the capital as security forces used mortars, then tanks and infantry to try to flush rebels out of Kfar Souseh, a southern suburb.

The al-Lawan and Basateen districts of Kfar Souseh are a semi-residential area of olive and fruit groves lying astride an interchange on the capital's Hafez al-Assad southern bypass.

Activists said tanks were firing from the big Hadi Mosque to the east of the fields, and from the al-Mazzeh military airport immediately to the west.

"I woke up this morning and saw helicopters flying over the area. Then I started hearing the mortars. There were about six or seven of them in the past half hour. And now I just heard another one hit. We can see fire and smoke coming from one of the fields nearby," said anti-government activist Hazem al-Aqad.

"People are terrified, families are getting in their cars and rushing away as fast as they can."

The official news agency SANA said Syrian forces had killed a number of rebels who had been transporting arms and ammunition in two boats on Lake Qotaina, near Homs.

Assad's opponents say just under 13,000 armed and unarmed opponents of Assad, and around 4,300 members of security forces loyal to Damascus, have been killed since the uprising began 16 months ago.

DIPLOMACY

With events on the ground outrunning diplomacy, Britain circulated a draft resolution, backed by the United States, France and Germany, at the United Nations on Wednesday to make compliance with a transition plan drafted by international envoy Kofi Annan enforceable under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

This would allow the council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.

Annan himself asked the 15-member council to agree on "clear consequences" if the Syrian government or opposition failed to comply with his plan, which has produced neither a ceasefire nor political dialogue since it was agreed in April.

The draft in particular threatens the Syrian government with sanctions if it does not stop using heavy weapons and withdraw its troops from towns and cities within 10 days.

But Russia, Assad's chief backer on the U.N. Security Council, remained firmly in the Syrian leader's camp, having submitted its own draft resolution on Tuesday that made no mention of sanctions.

Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Alexander Pankin told reporters after Annan briefed the council in New York on Wednesday that Moscow believed sanctions were a "last resort".

Russia and China, both veto-wielding permanent council members, have for months blocked attempts to increase the pressure on Assad, endorsing his argument that he is defending his country against armed groups bent on toppling him with the backing of the West and Sunni Arab Gulf monarchies.

Syrian General Flees to Turkey after Defecting to Rebels

4 July 2012
Source: The Journal of Turkish Weekly

A Syrian general from an engineering division defected to the opposition rebels and fled to Turkey today, bringing the number of such top ranking officers given refuge on Turkish soil to 16, Free Syrian Army (FSA) officials said.

Turkey now hosts some 250 officers who have defected to the FSA in its southern Hatay province and helps them with logistical support, though Ankara denies providing them weapons.

The FSA officials, who declined to be named, said the number of officers defecting was rising daily as it became harder for them to avoid involvement in the conflict and due to their reluctance to be involved in the shelling of towns and villages.

Tension has risen between Turkey and Syria since Syrian forces shot down a Turkish reconnaissance jet over the Mediterranean on June 22.

Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Hurriyet Daily News

Empowerment, not restrictions, will solve media’s ills — sector leaders

June 24, 2012
by Hani Hazaimeh
Source:Jordan Times

AMMAN — Reforming the Kingdom’s press is best done by training and empowering journalists, not limiting their freedoms, members of the media said.

In interviews with The Jordan Times, they insisted that there was no need for additional legislation or regulations that might undermine press freedoms or the freedom of expression.

"The media is a very important player in shaping the public mind and in steering the community's perception,” said Jordan Press Association (JPA) President Tareq Momani.

“Therefore, it is essential that what is being reported reflects the truth without bias or prejudice. The JPA is keen to fulfil its responsibilities in elevating professionalism, provided that all other parties show the same enthusiasm and willingness to cooperate," Momani told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

He was responding to Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh's comments during an interview on Jordan Television on Friday night.

"Some media outlets deviate from the right track and we continue to see some who intentionally publish material meant for character assassination or news reports without verifying their validity,” Tarawneh said on the “Sixty Minutes” news programme. “This creates confusion and this is of course due to the leniency of the authorities in dealing with news providers."

"I think the Jordan Press Association can play an important role in this particular aspect with regard to... introducing proper legislation to curb this unacceptable behaviour," the premier added.

Al Rai Editor-in-Chief Samir Hiyari acknowledged that the problems Tarawneh mentioned are real, blaming “unprofessional media outlets” for presenting local and foreign audiences with reports that do not meet the criteria of professionalism.

"We should not bury our heads in the sand and say we don’t have a problem, because we do, and this requires us all to work together to address this problem because it is affecting the entire media body," Hiyari said.

President of the Transparency Forum Bassem Sakkijha, however, warned that authorities should tread very carefully in dealing with the media in a society that is witnessing democratic transformations.

“Any attempt to restrain the media sector under any excuse will backfire,” he told The Jordan Times over the phone.

"It is true that the media anywhere need overhauls from time to time to keep up with the changes in the world around them. However, authorities should work on empowering the media by activating media-related legislation such as the Access to Information Law, which enables journalists to obtain credible information from credible sources," said Sakkijha, who is also a columnist for Ad Dustour.

A lack of transparency and openness to the media compels journalists to seek anonymous sources, he noted.

Co-publisher of Khaberni.com Mohammad Hawamdeh said the “chaos” in the online media sector requires an initiative by all stakeholders — the government, JPA, Parliament and civil society institutions concerned with the media - in order to organise the sector.

"Sadly no one has the courage to take such initiative as they are fearful of the reaction of the online media," Hawamdeh said, adding that the “immature” electronic media sector in particular needs to be regulated in order to ensure its abidance by the ethics of the profession.

Meanwhile, Momani said he had represented the JPA alongside media leaders at several meetings with government officials, including the premier, to discuss the media strategy adopted by the former government of Marouf Bakhit.

"The JPA will support any constructive effort that leads to empowering the media sector, but we will strongly oppose any measure that could undermine press freedom," Momani said, stressing that the JPA is not aware of any government intention at the moment to amend the Press and Publications Law.

Egypt democracy dependent on Morsi political skills

Jun 25, 2012
Source: Press TV

Egypt’s new President Mohamed Morsi has called on all Egyptians to unite and says the revolution, which ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, will continue.


"I will be a president for all Egyptians," Morsi said just hours after he was declared the winner the Egyptian presidential election, adding that national unity "is the only way out of these difficult times.".

Earlier in the day, after days of delay, the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) announced Morsi as the winner of the county’s presidential runoff.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Nii Akuetteh, African policy analyst from Washington, to further discuss the issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: International reactions are pouring in, as we’ve just reported. The US has expressed its desire for Morsi to continue with Egypt's past policies within the region. The new president is going to be under a lot of pressure now, isn’t he to do so?

Akuetteh: Yes, but the US statement also said that it wanted him to respect the right of all Egyptians and to govern them democratically. You are absolutely right; there are a whole lot of demands on him.

As I read the election results and the reaction inside Egypt itself, there are different groups. I think that he is going to have a number of things to juggle with, a number of pressures both internally and from the outside.

Press TV: A lot is not clear yet but Morsi has now said that he will continue to honor all previous agreements, and this is probably going to include the Camp David Agreement with Israel. How will this go down with the Egyptian people considering the Camp David agreement has been a source of dissatisfaction on the part of Egyptians and the Palestinian cause is very much close to the hearts of most Egyptians?

Akuetteh: I agree completely with you that that is on the minds of Egyptians. However, because number one, he wouldn’t be governor even with the constitution -- Egypt doesn’t have a constitution. The constitution assembly has been dissolved by the military junta and you don’t have a normal legislature.

Down the road in months to come and years to come when you have a functioning parliament, that is a direct will for the Egyptian people to put pressure on their government directly. Until you have that form of legislature and government, then it will just be what people say in the streets and newspaper and when they march. Then you will have different factions contending.

It’s going to be touch and go for a while until we have an electoral legislature and the military’s powers have been curtailed.

Press TV: We’ll get back to the question of the constitution but there are rulers at the moment that the Muslim Brotherhood is negotiating a power sharing deal with the ruling generals. There is no doubt that the new president will have to negotiate his way with SCAF, but what kind of agreement do you think they'll reach?

Akuetteh: That is hard to tell because I think both of them will keep their eyes on people in the street. I think that the military, the SCAF, would like to keep as much power as possible, but I also think that they understand they don’t have a mandate. Nobody has elected them and over 30 million people, the voters, the majority of Egyptians have just elected Mr. Morsi.

Therefore, I think the military will be careful about wanting to push him around. They like the keep power so in the negotiation I expected them to be keeping an eye on what the people are saying, how much they can get away with.

I will be watching closely to see what kind of deal they come up with. Of course, you know that there are a number of issues that they are fighting over, when Mr. Morsi will be sworn in and then the decrees that just came in allocating certain powers to him. A number of things they will negotiate and fight about and it bears watching.

Press TV: Morsi did make a lot of promises during his campaign and also in his address tonight. As you mentioned, there is no constitution in place and you said this will give very little space to maneuver, but just elaborate for our viewers a bit more about how much will he be able to deliver on some of the most fundamental promises he made during his campaign?

Akuetteh: Every leader in every country, their own political skills are important but especially in the case of Egypt now where, number one, you don’t have a constitution and a former government, and even the court is suspect because it was appointed by former President Mubarak. Then you have the SCAF.

Without those former institutions, I think a lot would depend on Mr. Morsi’s personal political skills. I think he has started well because yes it is true that he made a lot of promises but generally in elections that’s what politicians have to do.

People look at their promises especially in a place like Egypt where we are having real democratic elections really for the first time. What happened under former President Mubarak, nobody really took them seriously as elections.

The populace are going to look at what is he saying; he’s saying the right things. Today, when it was announced, Sunday, when his victory was announced, his certain speech, he also said the right thing, so that is good.

You are right in saying that politicians and leaders saying one thing and another, what they actually do is important. I’m saying, therefore, that his skills at negotiating, at appealing to people, at bringing people and forming coalitions, reassuring both internal groups inside Egypt as well as how he talks to the international community.

By the way, we must remember he got part of his education in the United States and he lived in the United States, worked for NASA and was a professor, so he understands the American system much better than most people will suspect.

Therefore, I expect him to deal with the international issues quite carefully. I’m not saying he won’t have challenges but he appears to have some very good political skills.

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