So-called U.S. hostage appears to be toy
CNN News
An Islamist website used the image of a military action figure ("Special Ops Cody," manufactured by Dragon Models USA in late 2003) handcuffed and held at gun point to try to negotiate the release of Iraqi prisoners. 2.1.05
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Bloggers Doubt Berg Execution Video
Lawrence Smallman @ al Jazeera
"Revolting millions around the world, the video footage of an American citizen's execution has also raised numerous questions concerning its authenticity... There are plenty of questions raised concerning the video too. The body is completely motionless even as the knife is brought to bear – not so much as an instinctive wriggle. In a possible explanation, one discussion room member suggested that Berg was killed and then beheaded later." 5.14.04
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Chopping Heads
Amir Taheri @ New York Post
"The cutting of heads (in Arabic, qata al-raas) has been the favorite form of Islamist execution for more than 14 centuries. In the famous battles of early Islam, with the Prophet personally in command of the army of believers, the heads of enemy generals and soldiers were often cut off and put on sticks to be shown around villages and towns as a warning to potential adversaries."
5.14.04
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The ultimate reality show
Jimmy Breslin @ Newsday
We are at the end of an old way of telling the public the news of the day. The pictures of torturing at the prison in Baghdad, where so many have digital cameras, showed that the newspapers and television are no longer the gatekeepers of what the public can see or be shielded from.
5.13.04
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Soldiers speak out on abuse
Dave Moniz and Dennis Cauchon @ USA Today
"WASHINGTON — Lawyers for two of the soldiers at the center of the Iraq prison-abuse scandal said Wednesday that military intelligence personnel ordered the photographs taken of the soldiers with bound and naked prisoners." 5.13.04
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Lawmakers Are Stunned By New Images of Abuse
Charles Babington @ Washington Post
"Scores of lawmakers yesterday viewed unreleased photos and videos of Iraqi detainees being sexually humiliated and physically threatened. The images, which included Iraqi corpses, U.S. troops having sex with each other, and previously undisclosed videos of at least one inmate ramming his head into a wall, convinced some legislators that the number of Americans who violated military protocol is larger than previously thought." 5.13.04
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Leaking Self-Doubt
Brendan O'Neill @ Spiked
"President George W Bush did a special turn on Arab TV to denounce the torture depicted in the photos as 'un-American' and 'unacceptable'...The Glasgow Sunday Herald says they are 'the photos that lost the war'. The photos have become tools of protest in the Middle East. In Baghdad protesters held makeshift placards with the Abu Ghraib pictures attached, under the heading 'This is what America does'." 5.13.04
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Iraq Videotape Shows the Decapitation of an American
Dexter Filkins @New York Times
“An Islamist Web site posted a videotape on Tuesday showing the decapitation of an American in Iraq, in what the killers called revenge for the American mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison” 5.12.04
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A Time for Truth
Pat Buchanan @Anti War
"The neoconservative hour is over. All the blather about "empire," our "unipolar moment," "Pax Americana" and "benevolent global hegemony" will be quietly put on a shelf and forgotten as infantile prattle."
5.12.04
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General Says Superiors Overruled Her on Prison
Jeffrey Smith and Josh White @Washington Post
"Former prisons chief in Iraq told investigators she resisted decisions to hand control to military intelligence." 5.11.04
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Just Trust Us
Paul Krugman @ New York Times
"Krugman points out the fallacy of the Bush administration party line - 'Just Trust Us.'" 5.11.04
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Privatised wars need new laws
Stephen Evans @ _blank"> BBC
One academic study says the ratio of private contractors to US military personnel in the Gulf now is roughly one to ten, ten times the ratio during the 1991 war. In Abu Ghraib prison - where contractors are reported to have run interrogations - that means unclear lines of legal responsibility.
5.10.04
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Annals of National Security
Seymour M. Hersh @New Yorker
"How the Department of Defense mishandled the disaster at Abu Ghraib." 5.9.04
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If only there had been no pictures
Margaret Wente @Globe and Mail
“It was the images that turned the torture and humiliation at Abu Ghraib into the tipping point for the Bush administration. And it was a digital camera that turned a 21-year-old named Lynndie England into the anti-Jessica Lynch.” 5.9.04
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World of Hurt
Maureen Dowd @ New York Times
"...the hawks who wanted to employ American might to scatter American values like flower petals all across the world are reduced to keeping them from being trampled by Americans. As Rummy would say, not a pretty picture." 5.9.04
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Hamas Expected to Boost Online Activities
Lauren Gelfond @ _blank"> Jerusalem Post
Breaking news on hamasonline.com boasts "Hamas reservoir of leaders enormous." Phantom terror groups on the run from surveillance, capture or assassination-attempts are more and more finding a cheap and safe launch pad for their ideology and operations on the Web, according to a new study by US Institute of peace in Washington, DC. 5.1.04
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U.S. Protests Broadcasts by Arab Channels
Christopher Marquis@ _blank"> New York Times
"The Bush administration, frustrated by what it calls "inflammatory" reports by Arabic television channels, has in recent days protested to foreign government officials, confronted Arab news executives and put together a list of supposed abuses." 4.29.04
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Blog: Net censorship stepped up
Hossein Derakhshan @ _blank"> Hossein Derakhshan's English weblog on Iran, technology and pop culture
"If there is still any reporter in Iran, covering the elections, please do a story about Internet censorship in Iran. It has apparently stepped up these days because of the elections.
Internet will soon be the only medium that reformists have access to and being silent about the crackdown on it, must be seen in this respect." 2.26.04
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Blogging boom in Iran defies control, New medium is a way to escape stifling theocratic control
@ _blank"> Toronto Star
"Initially created to defy the country's tight control on media, these web journals have turned into a cyber-sanctuary - part salon, part therapist's couch - for the vast pool of educated, young and computer-savvy Iranians. As Friday's parliamentary elections approach, however, there's a distinct tone of worry that conservatives expected to regain control of Parliament would step up pressure to censor the Internet." 2.19.04
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Two Iran Papers Shut for Reporting Khamenei Letter
@ _blank"> Iran Expert
"TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's hardline judiciary closed down two leading newspapers on Wednesday for publishing a letter in which reformist lawmakers accused Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of heading a system that abused people's rights." 2.18.04
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Arab TV: War of Information
MOSAIC @ _blank"> Link TV
Mosaic Special Report examines how different broadcasters in the Middle East, including US funded Alhurra, are reporting on the same stories. How do the underlying values, politics, and patriotism of each media channel impact what you see on the screen? What role does journalistic integrity and professionalism play? How do the governments in each region affect the way news is reported? 1.1.04
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Intifada Spurs Palestine Internet Boom
Laila El-Haddad @ _blank"> Al Jazeera
"The internet, with its ability to transcend borders, distance and government censorship, has become the preferred medium of information exchange for local Palestinians and foreign activists alike." 12.11.03
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Arab Regimes Exploited 9/11 To Erode Liberties
@ _blank"> Islam Online
"AMMAN, October 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Arab regimes have taken advantage of the U.S.-led "war on terrorism" to adopt extreme security measures eroding civil and political liberties, a groundbreaking U.N. report said Monday, October 20." 10.21.03
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The View From the Middle East, Two Years After 9/11
MOSAIC @ _blank"> Link TV
This Mosaic Special Report looks at the prevailing views and perceptions of America held by those in the Middle East and examines how those views are shaped and how have they changed in the two years since 9/11. The program also considers the impact that U.S. actions in the war on terror have had on Middle East views. 10.1.03
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Akbar Ahmed: Islam Under Siege
Akbar Ahmed @ _blank"> The Globalist
"Some people around the world view the age of terrorism as the age of Islam. This does not mean that Islam has benefited from terror acts. On the contrary, many Muslims feel that their religion is under pressure like never before." 7.20.03
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Rules, What Rules? Ask Saudi Internet Cafe Owners
Arab News Team @ Arab News
"JEDDAH/RIYADH/DAMMAM, 7 July 2003 — The announcement on Saturday that Internet cafes have been asked to adhere strictly to the laws regarding monitoring of those who use the Net met with puzzlement from the owners and managers of cafes across the Kingdom." 7.1.03
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Filtering of Websites
@ _blank"> Women in Iran
"Last month Iranian newspapers dedicated a good part of their columns reporting on the issue of filtering of websites on the Internet. Filtering, which can be equated with Internet censorship (web), means to prohibit the free flow of information. It is a software mechanism that aims to decrease (or stop) accessibility of the blocked website. A complete list of the Judiciary's regulations is as follows..." 5.30.03
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The use of the Internet for political action by non-state dissident actors in the Middle East
W. Sean McLaughlin @ First Monday
"Examines how non-state dissident actors in the Middle East use the Internet for political action in the face of state-imposed constraints on Internet access. Non-state dissident actors have revisionist goals and the Internet offers certain advantages for accomplishing these political objectives." 5.1.03
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Dot Com for Dictators
Shanthi Kalathil @ Foreign Policy
“Tales of cyberdissents fighting government censors feed the conventional wisdom about the internet’s role as a powerful tool against tyranny. But if democracy advocates want to spur meaningful change, they must also recognize the Net’s ability to change authoritarian regimes from within.” 4.1.03
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The Orphans of Modernity and the Clash of Civilizations
Khaled Abou El Fadl @ _blank"> Scholar of the House
El Fadl argues that September 11 is not a symptom of a clash of civilizations and that assumptions about relative civilization superiority, treat civilizational paradigms and conflicts like beauty competitions and that such treatment is fraught with methodological errors which make it a particularly unhelpful way of understanding the current conflict. 3.1.02
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Commentary on the 9-11 Tragedies, Terrorism, Puritanism, Islam and Islamic Law
Khaled Abou El Fadl @ _blank"> Scholar of the House
Videos of El Fadl discussing terrorism, puritanism, Islam and Islamic law and the historical dynamics leading to 9-11, unequivocally denouncing the terrorist acts. 1.2.02
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Terrorism and Racism: The Aftermath of Durban
Anne Bayefsky @ Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
"Discusses the use of the UN-sponsored World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, as a forum for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric, Arab anti-Semitism and racism following 911, its impact on the Middle East conflict, and the Fall 2001 UN General Assembly terrorism debate." 12.1.01
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Defeating Terror: Confront Supply and Demand
Shibley Telhami @ Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development
"Broader regional anger provides the demand side of the terrorism phenomenon. Although any effective war on terrorism requires confronting the supply side—the evil perpetrators who carry out attacks on innocent civilians—it cannot be fully effective unless it also addresses the demand side of the equation by reducing despair and anger and by providing an alternative to violence that gives rise to hope..."
11.1.01
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The Digital Revolt: Resistance & Agency on the Net
Will Taggart @ New Media and Information Technologies in the Middle East
“Various transnational groups of hackers and "defacers" split along nationalistic, religious, and ethnic lines have joined the conflict in reaction to competing media accounts of the most recent uprising in the West Bank and Gaza, alternately known as the second or Al-Aqsa Intifada...” 6.1.01
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Islam: Images, Politics, Paradox
Khaled Abou El Fadl @ _blank"> Scholar of the House
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, commentators argued that the Islamic concept of jihad or the notion of the dar al-harb (the abode of war) is to blame for the contemporary violence. These arguments are anachronistic and Orientalist. One must come to terms with the fact that supremacist puritanism in contemporary Islam is dismissive of all moral norms or ethical values, and is primarily concerned with power and its symbols. 1.1.01
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The Internet in the Middle East and North Africa: Free Expression and Censorship
@ Human Rights Watch
"The report surveys Internet policies of governments in the Middle East region as they affect the right to freedom of expression. It identifies policies, laws, and practices that violate or endanger this right." 1.1.99
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Up-Date: The Internet In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
@ Mosaic Group
“The chapter up-dates the initial assessment of the development of the Internet in Saudi Arabia presented in the first of the Global Diffusion of the Internet Project reports. Companies were reserving domain names and IP address space, getting ready to move their Web sites into the Kingdom from their current off-shore locations..." 1.1.99
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National Security and Democracy on the Internet in Israel
Dr. Michael Dahan @ Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication Conference
"A parliamentary committee meeting devoted to “Freedom of Expression and the Internet”, began with a short demonstration in which Internet sites describing the Order of Battle of the Israeli Airforce, Nuclear weapons, as well as some pornography were reviewed. This incident serves to underscore the inherent conflict of values in Israeli society -- national security versus the ideal of liberal democracy." 8.1.98
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The Arab Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism
Arab League@ _blank"> Arab League
"Convention adopted by the Council of Arab Ministers of the Interior and the Council of Arab Ministers of Justice at the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States Cairo, April 1998. Signed by 22 states including the Palestinian Authority." 4.22.98
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The Global Diffusion of the Internet Project: An Initial Inductive Study
@ Mosaic Group
"This report proposes a framework for analysis of the diffusion and absorption of the Internet worldwide with an emphasis on the Middle East, assessing both the extent and quality of Internet use and the supporting infrastructure." 3.1.98
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The Arab Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism, a serious threat to human rights
@ _blank"> Amnesty International
"Amnesty International calls for the Arab Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism, to be amended to conform to international human rights and humanitarian law. Claiming that the definition of 'terrorism' in the Convention is so broad that it lends itself to wide interpretation and abuse, Amnesty offers recommendations for its revision."
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In the wake of the September 11 attacks, commentators posed the question of whether Islam somehow encourages violence and terrorism. Others argued that the Islamic concept of jihad or the notion of the dar al-harb (the abode of war) is to blame for the contemporary violence. These arguments are anachronistic and Orientalist. One must come to terms with the fact that supremacist puritanism in contemporary Islam is dismissive of all moral norms or ethical values, and is primarily concerned with power and its symbols.
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