Month: January 2011

Today on the Dish, Chris traced Egypt updates throughout the night, including poetry as protest, and the army officer who joined the protests. Al Jazeera reporters were arrested (and released), protests were planned for Tuesday, and Friday flagged as the "Friday of Departure" for the army. Protesters cleaned the streets and cheered Al Jazeera, and we dissected rumors of army orders to fire on protesters. Women manned the front lines, graffiti painted tanks, libraries were guarded, and late today a total Internet blackout fell over Egypt. Israel defended Mubarak, Syria's President vowed to reform, and we tracked how Egypt was playing in Iran. China censored the Egyptian upheaval, Osama bin Laden seemed irrelevant, and Egypt's economy teetered. Brian Ulrich gauged the military leaders' motives, Philip Giraldi examined our spending abroad, and the web assessed the Muslim Brotherhood. The US dispatched a former Ambassador to Egypt, but we remembered that it's the US that outsourced its torture to Egypt. Breitbart's Big Peace published all kinds of crazy, Palin was happy to not get blamed for Cairo, and Douthat took the long view: history makes fools of us all.

A new 2012 GOP contender baffled the blogosphere, Frum parsed the report on what caused the Financial Crisis, and Conor noted that the GOP isn't necessarily the party for liberty-minded individuals. Conor questioned the protesters outside the Koch brothers' retreat, a man tried to blow up a Detroit mosque with fireworks, readers ripped apart Rand Paul's budget cuts, and church abuse takes advantage of adults too. Harper's Magazine struggled, Afghanistan suffered a major blow to its image and stability, and marriage equality mattered. The clothing industry needed its own Michael Pollan, Herman Melville loved beard euphemisms, and Americans were obsessed with white meat. Life imitated Four Lions, cooking was for eating, and Andrew's still on the mend.

Quote for the day here, MHB here, FOTD here, VFYW here, chart of the day here, (with correction here).

–Z.P.

by Patrick Appel

From Tahrir Square today, a powerful interview with a protester:

by Patrick Appel

Michael Downey has an interview with Khaled Hamza, "editor of the Muslim Brotherhood’s official website." According to Downey "Hamza is considered a leading voice of moderation within the party, and is central to its youth-outreach efforts." One section of interest:

The Iranians follow the Ayatollah; we do not believe Islam requires a theocracy. In our view, the ulema (clergy) are only for teaching and education—they are out of the political sphere. Iran has some good things, such as elections, but we disagree with all the aggression. We disagree also with the human rights abuses from the government and attacks on the population.

by Patrick Appel

Al Jazerra gets a quote from historian Basheer Nafi:

My feeling is that we are witnessing a second wave of the Arab liberation movement … In the first wave, the Arabs liberated themselves from colonial powers and foreign domiantion. I think now, the very heart of the Arab world, the backbone of the Arab world, is leading the move towards freedom and democracy and human rights.

(Photo: Buildings are silhouetted at dusk along the Nile River which runs through the city of Cairo on January 31, 2011, as the nation gears up for strikes and a million-strong march expected in the capital and Alexandria, marking the eighth day of protests by Egyptians calling for the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime. By Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images) 

by Zoe Pollock

Egypt's students are protecting artifacts and libraries, according to Bibliotecha Alexindrina's director, Ismael Serageldin:

The young people organized themselves into groups that directed traffic, protected neighborhoods and guarded public buildings of value such as the Egyptian Museum and the Library of Alexandria. They are collaborating with the army.  This makeshift arrangement is in place until full public order returns. The library is safe thanks to Egypt’s youth, whether they be the staff of the Library or the representatives of the demonstrators, who are joining us in guarding the building from potential vandals and looters.

Cord Jefferson applauds:

This is how you protest.

(Photo: An Egyptian man holds a chain as part of a ad-hoc neighborhood security militia in residential neighborhood in central Cairo the afternoon of January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.)

by Conor Friedersdorf

This is the sort of event that confuses me:

An invitation-only political retreat for rich conservatives, run out of the spotlight for years by a pair of Kansas billionaires, became a public rallying point for liberal outrage on Sunday, as 11 busloads of protesters converged on a resort in the Southern California desert.

An estimated 800 to 1,000 protesters from a spectrum of liberal groups vented their anger chiefly at Charles and David Koch, brothers who have used many millions of dollars from the energy conglomerate they run in Wichita to finance conservative causes. More than two dozen protesters, camera crews swarming around them, were arrested on trespassing charges when they went onto the resort grounds.

Does standing across the street shouting at the luxury resort where the Kochs are staying help change the laws that govern campaign finance and political donations? Does it accomplish anything?

And there is this from Firedoglake:

Riverside Sheriff’s deputy Melissa Nieburger said that the sheriff’s department did have contacts with protest organizers, which included the California Courage Campaign, CREDO, MoveOn.org, 350.org, the California Nurses Association, United Domestic Workers of America and the main sponsor, the good-government group Common Cause, prior to the event, and that they were aware that some protesters would seek to be arrested for trespassing.

Why get arrested? Does that confer more media attention? Or is it some fuzzy thinking about civil disobedience? There are times when protest rallies make strategic sense. Participating can even be a morally righteous act. But I can't see how this is one of them. And I hope we aren't entering an era where angry progressives rabble rouse at private events for conservatives and Tea Party types respond in kind by protesting at George Soros sponsored events. Aside from bullhorn manufacturers I'm not sure who benefits, unless the idea is to intimidate the people who decide to attend such meetings, which is just dastardly. "Conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart, resplendent in shorts and roller skates, mulled around the crowd with a couple lackeys and a small video camera, talking to (and arguing with) attendees," the story notes. When he's filming your event, it's a pretty good bet that it isn't helping your image!

I'm not against street protests. The progressive anti-war marches were an appropriate type of dissent. Sure, there were excesses, as their critics reasonably point out. But the average protestors were innocent of them, their instinct that the War in Iraq would have disastrous consequences turned out to be right, and it's easy nowadays to forget that our troops are still occupying that faraway country. Guantanamo Bay, prison rape, undeclared drone attacks in numerous countries, imperial overreach at the Drug Enforcement Agency, surveillance policy: all kinds of progressive causes are suited to efforts at raising awareness. But assembling a large crowd to shout at people attending a private event because they're rich and give to political causes with which you disagree? Seems like bullying.

Yes, I am sympathetic to some of the organizations that the Kochs fund – places like Cato and Reason, mostly because they're great on all the civil liberties and foreign policy issues that I care about, including the ones mentioned in the previous paragraph. But look. There are big money donors to all sorts of ideological groups, and I'd never think of shouting my head off at any of them. To me, the villains in American politics aren't the folks donating to ideological causes with which they genuinely agree, even if you're someone who thinks the rules governing these sorts of donations should be changed. And besides, it seems like if you're protesting the role of money in politics, your target ought to be content neutral – that is to say, you should object to methods since they're used by everyone, rather than singling out for opprobrium the people whose particular message you find wrongheaded.

by Patrick Appel

An example of Egyptian torture from an infamous 2007 incident (NSFW): 

This forced sodomy with a stick is not related to the war on terror, but it illustrates the brutality of Egypt's forces. Building off Jane Mayer's report on America outsourcing its torture to Egypt, Adam Serwer asks:

While the Obama administration has been quietly pressuring Egypt on human rights issues behind the scenes, it's not hard to understand why neither Mubarak nor the leadership of Egyptian security forces would take this too seriously. For years the United States has implicitly asked Egypt to violate human rights laws on our behalf. Why would they take U.S. calls to respect them seriously now?

Joe Stork of HRW has more on Egypt's record on torture:

Torture is an endemic problem in Egypt and ending police abuse has been a driving element behind the massive popular demonstrations that swept Egypt over the past week – Human Rights Watch has documented the torture in a 95-page report, "'Work on Him Until He Confesses': Impunity for Torture in Egypt."

Egyptians deserve a clean break from the incredibly entrenched practice of torture. The Egyptian government's foul record on this issue is a huge part of what is still bringing crowds onto the streets today.

Prosecuting torture and ending the emergency laws that enable a culture of impunity for the security forces should be a priority for the new Egyptian government. 

by Patrick Appel

The latest from Channel 4 News:

by Zoe Pollock

Freddie DeBoer responds to Will Wilkinson on nuclear annihilation:

There are still enough active nuclear weapons in the world to render much of it an apocalyptic wasteland. I'm glad that scenario feels farther off then it did when I was a child, but please. As long as the impediment to such a scenario is human discretion and human virtue, our ticket is close to being punched.