Saturday, March 31, 2012

MEMRI: Egyptian Cleric Muhammad Hassan Calls upon Egyptians to Contribute Money to Replace US Aid, "with which the Americans Want to Humiliate Egypt"

MEMRI: Egyptian Cleric Muhammad Hassan Calls upon Egyptians to Contribute Money to Replace US Aid, "with which the Americans Want to Humiliate Egypt"

MEMRI: Egyptian Cleric Muhammad Hassan Calls upon Egyptians to Contribute Money to Replace US Aid, "with which the Americans Want to Humiliate Egypt"

MEMRI: Egyptian Cleric Muhammad Hassan Calls upon Egyptians to Contribute Money to Replace US Aid, "with which the Americans Want to Humiliate Egypt"

Crisis between Egypt, U.S. Deepens over American Funding to Civil Society Organizations – Part IV: Release of American NGO Activists from Egypt – A Sign of Increasing Pragmatism in the Muslim Brotherhood's Policy

Crisis between Egypt, U.S. Deepens over American Funding to Civil Society Organizations – Part IV: Release of American NGO Activists from Egypt – A Sign of Increasing Pragmatism in the Muslim Brotherhood's Policy

Opposition in Syria condemns slow efforts to end bloodshed

From The Washington Post:


Opposition in Syria condemns slow efforts to end bloodshed

BEIRUT — Demonstrations and violence continued across Syria on Friday, as opponents of the government condemned the Arab League and world powers for failing to help them, while opposition groups outside the country prepared to meet with diplomats for a “Friends of Syria” conference in Istanbul.
Members of revolutionary organizations inside Syria expressed anger at the slow pace of diplomatic attempts to halt violence that the United Nations estimates has killed 9,000 people , after nearly a week of calls by international leaders for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to implement a U.N.-forged plan for peace.
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Graphic
A look at the Syrian uprising one year later. Thousands of Syrians have died and President Bashar al-Assad remains in power, despite numerous calls by the international community for him to step down.
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A look at the Syrian uprising one year later. Thousands of Syrians have died and President Bashar al-Assad remains in power, despite numerous calls by the international community for him to step down.
“We are under shelling every day, and we need food, medication and all the help in the world,” said an activist in the opposition-dominated city of Homs, who gave his name as Waleed Fares. “All the initiatives are coming late.”
The U.N. proposal, which calls for Syrian forces to halt hostilities in population centers , was endorsed this week by Assad. “The deadline is now,” said the spokesman for U.N. envoy Kofi Annan, Ahmad Fawzi, while speaking in Geneva. “We expect him to implement this plan immediately.”
But Fares said that there had been no letup in heavy artillery fire on his neighborhood of Khalidiyeh, and dozens of deaths were reported across the country by activist groups. Syrian news media reported that four explosive devices had been found and defused in the northern city of Aleppo on Thursday.
Opposition groups, which are largely based outside Syria and have struggled for unity, prepared to gather in Istanbul on Sunday to lobby nations sympathetic to their goals. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was in Saudi Arabia on Friday meeting with King Abdullah, is expected to be among those attending.
But rebels inside Syria criticized their representatives for being out of touch.
“The Syrian opposition is a big shame,” said Noureddine al-Abdo, a member of the opposition in Idlib province who said he was moving from village to village with the armed opposition known as the Free Syrian Army. “They didn’t do anything for the Syrian people — neither them nor anyone in the world.”
Other activists inside the country said they welcomed American and British moves this week to supply the opposition on the ground with non-lethal aid, but some said that what they really want is weapons.
“There is a big gulf between the activists on the ground and the ones outside Syria,” said Fawaz A. Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics. Both Assad and his opponents, he said, are “realizing this is going to be a prolonged, complex, bloody struggle.”
Despite Annan’s six-point plan, international pressure on Assad is minimal, Gerges added, because neither Annan nor an Arab League summit in Baghdad this week have explicitly called on the Syrian president to step down, and his allies remain supportive. In Lebanon on Friday, the influential leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, reiterated his support for the Syrian authorities in a televised speech.
“Neither Assad nor the opposition really believes that Annan’s plan will go anywhere,” Gerges said. The opposition has been increasingly using guerrilla tactics such as bombings and ambushes, he said, causing civilian casualties as well as striking security forces. Meanwhile, he said, Syrian soldiers have been moving further into urban areas.
“Annan’s plan is an absolute and pure waste of time,” said Ausama Monajed, a spokesman for the largest coalition of opposition groups, the Syrian National Council.
Some countries, notably Qatar and Saudi Arabia, have indicated that they already support armed rebels, while other nations, especially Syria’s neighbors Iraq and Turkey, fear that further militarizing the chaotic uprising could create far-reaching regional conflict.
“The main task now is to organize the opposition, creating a chain of command and a structure that is going to be effective,” Monajed said. “Otherwise, you’re throwing millions at it without knowing where it is going.”

Suu Kyi is committed to win, says Burma vote unfair

From The Washington Post:


Suu Kyi is committed to win, says Burma vote unfair

RANGOON, Burma — Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Friday that Burma’s landmark weekend elections will be neither free nor fair because of widespread irregularities, but she vowed to continue her candidacy for the sake of the long-repressed nation.
Suu Kyi said opposition candidates had been targeted in stone-throwing incidents, campaign posters vandalized and members of her party intimidated during the run-up to Sunday’s closely watched parliamentary by-elections.
In a news conference on the lawn of her crumbling lakeside residence in Rangoon, the 66-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate said government officials were involved in some of the irregularities, which she said go “beyond what is acceptable for democratic elections.”
“Still,” she said, “we are determined to go forward because we think this is what our people want.”
The vote to fill 45 vacant seats in the 664-member parliament comes after months of surprising reforms carried out by Burma’s nominally civilian post-junta government, including the release of political prisoners, truces with rebel groups and a dramatic easing of media censorship. The poll is seen as a crucial test of the country’s commitment to change, and Western nations have held out the possibility of lifting some sanctions if all goes smoothly.
In a televised speech Sunday, President Thein Sein admitted to “unnecessary errors” in ballot lists and asked voters and politicians to respect “the decision of the people.”
On Friday, presidential adviser Nay Zin Latt said: “There could be some flaws and some bumps in the process, but our leaders have publicly said that their policy is to hold a free, fair and impartial election.”
What’s important, he added, is that “the country is on its reform road and is in the process of building a democratic society.”
The vote is likely to mark a symbolic turning point by bringing Suu Kyi into parliament for the first time since she emerged to lead the country’s struggle for democracy nearly a quarter of a century ago. She spent most of that time under house arrest, and her candidacy has raised hopes for a more representative government after almost 50 years of military rule.
It could also set the stage for her to run for president in the next national poll in 2015.
Still, with parliament overwhelmingly dominated by the ruling party and with 25 percent of seats allotted to the army, Suu Kyi and her opposition colleagues will be hard-pressed to achieve much if they are elected.

U.S. expresses concern about treatment of envoy to Russia

From The Washington Post:


U.S. expresses concern about treatment of envoy to Russia

The Obama administration has told the Russian government that it is concerned about the harassment of U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul, who suggested this week that his phone and e-mail account may have been hacked, allowing journalists from state-controlled television to track him.
McFaul, who took up his post in January, noted on his Twitter account that a crew from NTV seems to be aware of his every move, including meetings that have not been publicly announced.
(VLADIMIR PIROGOV/REUTERS) - Ambassador Michael McFaul has suggested that Russian journalists from state-controlled television may have hacked his phone and e-mail account.
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“I respect press right to go anywhere & ask any question,” McFaul tweeted Thursday. “But do they have a right to read my email and listen to my phone?”
Russian news agencies said NTV dismissed McFaul’s complaint, and officials at the station, which is owned by Gazprom, the state-controlled monopoly, said they have a network of informants who provide them with information.
“There’s been a number of incidents since his arrival there that have caused us to have some concerns about his security and safety,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Friday. “So as we would in following normal protocol, we’ve raised that with the government of Russia.”
Some Russian commentators have charged that McFaul, who has met with democracy activists involved in the recent street demonstrations in Moscow, is an agent of revolution.
NTV showed footage of McFaul complaining to one of its reporters about his treatment.
“Your ambassador in our country goes around all the time without this sort of thing, not interfering in his work,” McFaul said. “You’re with me everywhere, at home — it’s interesting. Aren’t you ashamed to be doing this? It’s an insult to your country when you do this.”
McFaul, who served on the National Security Council before becoming ambassador and was an advocate of the “reset” in relations with the Kremlin, added that Russia seems like a “wild country.” He later attributed that remark to his “bad Russian” and said that he intended to say that the NTV journalists were acting wildly, not that Russia is wild.
McFaul is not the first ambassador to clash with allies of the Kremlin. Pro-Kremlin youth groups have in the past followed the British and Estonian ambassadors as they moved around Moscow.

Russia: Ex-Soviet KGB Chief Commits Suicide

Russia: Ex-Soviet KGB Chief Commits Suicide