Month: February 2011

Bruce Riedel highlights al Qaeda's Egyptian irrelevance:

Bin Laden and Zawahiri are still dangerous in their Pakistani lairs, still capable of terror, and a very serious threat to the Pakistani state along with their allies in the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba. They are much better prepared to exploit unrest in Yemen than they were in Egypt if a revolution starts in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country. But their narrative has suffered a serious blow in the heart of the Arab and Muslim worlds. They promised that only jihad would bring change. History has showed them wrong.

A reader writes:

Hawaii is not really the outlier you seem to think it is.  While Hawaii as a state may have the lowest obesity of any US state, that is misleading.  Obesity among native Hawaiians remains among the highest rates in the US (itself among the most obese countries in the world, at any rate).  Moreover, unlike the other South Paciifc Islands mentioned in the post, the Hawaiian islands have a very high percentage of US armed forces – most of them in the left tail of the obesity curve.  Also in Hawaii: lots of rich people, with the time and money to focus on their bodies.  These two demographic factors no doubt skew the state's overall obesity rate.  Control for them, and Hawaii is not that much different, I'd wager, than Tuvalu, Palau, and the rest.

Some startling findings from a 1991 study:

The results of a recent study showed that obesity is more common among Native Hawaiians than in other groups in Hawaii; 18 percent of the people living in Hawaii were reported to be overweight (20 percent or more over their ideal body weight), while 42 percent of Native Hawaiians were overweight. The results of a study performed between 1982 and 1987 showed that Native Hawaiians have the highest mortality of any ethnic group living in the US. Native Hawaiians have death rates from heart disease, diabetes, and cancer that are 44 percent greater, 22 percent greater, and 39 percent greater, respectively, than the entire US population.

Protests in the capital city of Algiers were stifled by riot police on Saturday, but the unrest continued through the weekend:

The Associated Press agency reported that hundreds of demonstrators have clashed with police in the eastern Algerian city of Annaba on Sunday, as the opposition announced another major anti-government rally next weekend. …

Elias Filali, an Algerian blogger and activist, said Ali Yahia Abdennour, a senior figure and human right activist,  'we should continue protesting every Saturday in the same square, we will gather momentum as we progress we want our dignity back, yesterday the police has brutally beaten many protesters amongst them a pregnant women, old ladies, a journalist, young men and women, we should carry on protesting until we get our rights, "he said.

Andrew Lebovich provides some background on the situation there:

Algeria witnessed a massive wave of protests in early January that spread to 20 of the country’s 48 wilayas (provinces) and continues to see successful or attempted self-immolation from disaffected men in the capital Algiers and elsewhere. While the ostensible cause for the protests was a hike in the price of basic staples, such as sugar and cooking oil, the anger unleashed by the protests, albeit briefly, and the subsequent movements of both Algeria's government and its opposition groups indicate a much deeper anger over the country's political and social condition.

In response to the earlier violence and demands of civil society groups, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been in power since 1999 and amended the constitution in 2009 to be able to run for a third term, announced last week that he would lift "in the very near future" the state of emergency that has governed Algeria since 1992, when the military canceled free elections and a brutal civil war broke out. Bouteflika also promised moves to lower the prices of staple goods and provide government help in housing and job creation.

These half-measures changed little; opposition groups calling for major protests on Feb. 12 were unmoved, demanding the actual end to the state of emergency and greater press freedoms, if not the outright removal of Bouteflika from office.

Lebovich also compares and contrasts Algeria with Egypt and Tunisia.

Al-Jazeera reports:

Our correspondent Hoda Abdel Hamid says there are "barely any signs that there has been a revolution" at Tahrir Square this morning. No banners, no tents, no protesters chanting and traffic is flowing like before the protests began.

Here is a video of the clean-up effort and celebrations over the weekend. Enduring America has switched its live-blogging coverage from Egypt to a "Day of Rage" planned in Bahrain today.

I've seen a few curveballs hurled at him this past week, but I have to say his coverage struck me as superb. I don't mean the ambush on the street – which he rightly downplayed given what everyone else was going through. I mean his unequivocal use of the word "lie" to describe the simple untruths that the Mubarak regime was disseminating: that violence was being fomented by the demonstators, not their own undercover thugs, that there was foreign influence, that the Muslim Brotherhood was controlling the revolt, etc, etc. James Rainey tries to make some hay out of this and … totally fails.

He does make one good point, though.

What if journalists actually used the word "lie" to describe when the US government lies. Not spins but says something it knows is untrue and we can independently verify is untrue. It's funny but I don't remember a single moment on national television this past week when anyone described the tactics of Mubarak's and Suleiman's police as "enhanced interrogations" or their victims as "enemy combatants." And yet every single news outlet used those terms when deployed by Bush and Cheney. Yes, Egyptian torture was often far more sadistic. But the ability of a single man to arrest anyone and torture them – Egypt's Emergency Law – is indistinguishable in practice from John Yoo's and David Addington's view of American presidential power. As for the nature of the torture? Ask Jose Padilla, if he is still sane enough to speak.

One other media note: the best coverage I saw by far was by al Jazeera and BBC World News America. If you do not DVR or watch Matt Frei's and Katty Kay's 7 pm hour-long BBC America broadcast, you're missing a huge amount of what's going on in the world.

Trust me, I wouldn't have missed blogging the past three weeks for the world. Alas, two weeks of brutal fighting for breath and a week of no voice and no energy made it impossible. I'm so grateful for the Dish team's professionalism and verve and passion – and glad my absence helped show you how much they contribute to this always-evolving enterprise. I'm also more than touched by all your emails. Thank you.

by Chris Bodenner

The Greens are gearing up for pro-democracy protests tomorrow:

Iranian opposition leaders are moving forward with plans to hold a rally Monday in Tehran in support of successful anti-government uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Iran's Interior Ministry has refused to grant permission for the rally, which one government official has termed "riots for seditionists." Iranian reformist leader Mehdi Karroubi has been placed under house arrest, presumably in connection with the request to stage the rally. But on Sunday a renewed call for the demonstration appeared on both Karroubi's website and one belonging to another opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

The regime is trying to stymie online communication:

Iranian authorities have blocked the word "Bahman" — the 11th month of the Persian calendar — from Internet searches within the country, according to an opposition website. The measure appears to be an effort by Iranian authorities to obstruct access to several websites that are promoting a rally on Monday — the 25th day of Bahman — proposed by Iranian opposition leaders in support of the uprising in Egypt, Saham News reported Saturday. …

"By announcing that they will not allow opposition protests, the Iranian government has declared illegal for Iranians what it claimed was noble for Egyptians," National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said in the statement.

Enduring America is tracking the arrests of journalists and activists.

A demonsrator places his hands on his head as soldiers line up in central Tahrir Square on February 13, 2011, two days after the ouster of long-term President Hosni Mubarak. By Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)

by Conor Friedersdorf

Says Radley Balko:

There’s so much real investigative journalism conservatives could be doing on government waste, incompetence, accountability, and transparency. It’s pathetic that donors on the right keep handing over money for these moronic “stings”. The right needs 10 more Tim Carneys. Instead, they keep churning out James O’Keefes.

He's right.

There's a dysfunctional cycle on the right where the grassroots gets rightly fed up with various government abuses, the nation's shaky fiscal footing, and other matters of substance… but then rather than supporting and embracing champions who are forcefully fighting those things, they get distracted by Andrew Breitbart style circus acts. As a result, the USA is at less risk than ever before of pimps being assisted by left-leaning nonprofits.

What an achievement!

Meanwhile, IJ stands up for small entrepreneurs all over America, the ACLU monitors and challenges excesses in the national security state, Tim Carney keeps his eye on the pernicious relationship between lobbyists, big business, and big government, the Cato Institute's Julian Sanchez pushes back against intrusions into the privacy of citizens, various investigative journalists act as government watchdogs, the Manhattan Institute sounds the alarm about unsustainable pension costs, FIRE stands up for free speech on campus,Washington Monthly chronicles how dysfunctional regulations in the medical device market are disadvantaging innovative entrepreneurs and costing lives, Reason chronicles abuses in the War on Drugs that threaten all our freedoms…

But much of the grassroots right has fooled itself into thinking that it's the Breitbarts and O'Keefes of the world who are advancing their interests, behaving as if it's rogue pimps they regard as the biggest threat to the country's future. The Fox News coverage of that story, compared to all the issues listed above, almost makes it seem that way. It isn't the first time that headline grabbing media wizards have ridden style and antics to notoriety. It's still a shame, and something to be resisted, even though one gets the sense that a lot of conservatives don't even see the problem. As a result, they've got an ideological movement that is excellent at getting the base very riled up… and an utter failure at harnessing that energy to accomplish anything significant.

Or insignificant.

 
by Zoe Pollock

Ben Davis spotlights the work of artist and designer Ahmed Bassiouni, who goes by the name Ganzeer. Ganzeer described his mission to draw every martyr:

Dirty politics and power struggles aside, there are innocent people who died over the course of Egypt's current revolution. These people died because they could see something most of us could not see. They died because they could see Egypt soaring high in a place of dignity and respect. They could see Egypt become something none of us thought possible. They died for me, they died for you, for our grandparents, and for our children. True heroes, ready to fight a corrupt regime with all its soldiers, guns, and ammo with nothing more than their voices and willpower.