Fighting continues in Syria as Assad uses air force to terrorize

The world's attention has shifted to other critical issues, but the problems continue in Syria. Assad continues to use the full force of his military against civilians but the fight continues. He has the hardware but in the long run, he doesn't have the numbers to win the day. Not that it matters for now though, because civilians are being butchered on a daily basis. The Guardian:

The Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition network, reported on Monday that at least 58 people had died, including the 15 in Aleppo, where two buildings were hit by bombs dropped by government planes in the southern suburb of Maadi. Video posted online showed people digging through rubble searching for survivors.

Mohammed Saeed, a local activist, said the pre-dawn raid was intended to "terrify the people and try to turn them against the Free Syrian Army", the Associated Press news agency reported.

Attacks by government troops backed by helicopter gunships were reported in the southern town of Sheikh Miskeen in Daraa province. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels and troops were fighting near the airbase of Tabaqah in the northern province of Raqqa. Last week, rebels captured a key border crossing with Turkey in Raqqa.

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Is Romney preparing for a new war in the Middle East?

Or, is he just trying to show the Republicans that he can be a tough guy like Bush? Either way, the end result is not very good. If he thinks people want yet another costly war that will never end in the Middle East, he's sadly mistaken. Americans that actually watch their own budget are fed up with spending billions upon billions for unnecessary wars that the political class imagines are needed.

If Romney is trying to have a "I have a big penis" moment in order to win over the many Republicans who don't like him or trust him (like the NASCAR voters who now prefer Obama), he's failing to see how dangerous the war talk really is. By promoting another expensive war it only shows how ill prepared he is to lead. Romney's pro-war talk is not productive for any reason.

President Barack Obama hit back hard in a "60 Minutes" interview broadcast Sunday at Mitt Romney's criticisms of his handling of Syria and Iran, saying that if the Republican standard-bearer "is suggesting that we should start another war, he should say so."

Obama also brushed aside talk that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pressuring him to take a harder line on Iran's suspicious nuclear program — source of some of Romney's sharpest campaign-trail criticisms.

"When it comes to our national security decisions-- any pressure that I feel is simply to do what's right for the American people. And I am going to block out any noise that's out there," the president said.

Read the rest of this post...

Middle East protests: "There something different going on in every country"

This is a very nice intro to the broad question of "what's up with the Middle East" from Up With Chris Hayes this past weekend.

Guest host Sam Seder provides a good news summary, and then the panel takes over. The title quote is from Heather Hurlburt:

"There's something different going on in every country."

She then adds:

"If Egypt sneezes, the Muslim world catches cold."

Excellent discussion; watch:



For more information, see this post from yesterday.

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
 

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Why the Syrian crisis is not like Egypt or Libya

I've been reading Juan Cole's site to stay up on what's going on in the Middle East (among others). And I found this comment by guest columnist Søren Schmidt interesting (my emphasis and paragraphing):

Syria is neither Egypt nor Libya – and the conflict can therefore not be solved as it was in Egypt and Libya respectively.

The conflict in Syria worsens with each day that passes, and by now more than 20,000 people have been killed. At the same time, the parties are more keenly opposed than ever. The regime will have to go in the long run, but nobody knows how to get rid of it and get started on a democracy.

In Egypt, Mubarak was defeated by the mobilization of large masses of people demonstrating in Tahrir Square. In the confrontation between the regime and the masses of people, it was the regime that blinked first. The military quite simply did not have the stomach to beat back so many people, and in one fell swoop the regime’s authority vanished.

In Libya, Gaddafi was so isolated in his own country that the Libyans were able to defeat him militarily with a little help from the West.

But neither of these solutions can be applied in Syria, for two reasons.

First of all, the situation in Syria is a proper civil war between the country’s Sunni majority (65%) and the Alawi minority (10%) that the Assad clan belongs to; while the remaining minorities (Christians, Druze, Kurds and Shia: 25%) either support the regime or keep themselves on the sidelines.

Since the conflict can not be described, as it was in Egypt or Libya, only as a conflict between the regime and the people, but also between two parties, each of which represents an important social force, the opposition is not able to challenge the regime through mass mobilization.

Please read the rest. There's much more going on in the current Middle East crisis than this — it's a multi-party game that includes U.S. interests (including oil), Islamic fundamentalist sentiment, in-state rebellions, Al Qaeda groups of various stripes and flags, local political parties and power-struggles, distrust of Western (and U.S.) intentions and interventionism, and so much more.

For example, there's this, from later in the same piece:

Syria is an important link in the so-called resistance alliance, which in addition to Syria consists of Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah in a deterrence alliance against Israel.

Syria’s alliance partners will therefore do whatever they can to prevent pro-Israel, Western powers from taking out an important link in this alliance.

What's going on region-wide is important and complex. But Syria is a special case, and the article provides a good baseline to start your thinking from.

Don't think binarily about Syria — regime vs. people — no matter how tempting that is (or how tempted you are by mainstream media to go that way). Syria has a political party aspect, a tribal aspect, and a defense-against-Israel aspect as well.

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
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Mitt Romney apologizes to terrorists who killed US ambassador

The fair way to interpret what Romney told Stephanopoulos today is to use Romney's own language.

Mitt Romney condemned the anti-Muslim film that incited the deadly attacks in Libya and Egypt, and used language that is awfully similar to the US embassy statement that Romney, Fox News, and a slew of Republicans have been calling "an apology."

Here's Romney today:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the film that seems to have sparked all this, the Innocence of Muslims film? Secretary Clinton today said she thought it was disgusting. How would you describe it?

MITT ROMNEY: Well, I haven’t seen the film. I don’t intend to see it. I you know, I think it’s dispiriting sometimes to see some of the awful things people say. And the idea of using something that some people consider sacred and then parading that out a negative way is simply inappropriate and wrong. And I wish people wouldn’t do it. Of course, we have a First Amendment. And under the First Amendment, people are allowed to do what they feel they want to do. They have the right to do that, but it’s not right to do things that are of the nature of what was done by, apparently this film.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We’ve seen General Martin Dempsey call Pastor Jones to say, “Please don’t promote this film.” You think that’s a good idea?

MITT ROMNEY: I think the whole film is a terrible idea. I think him making it, promoting it showing it is disrespectful to people of other faiths. I don’t think that should happen. I think people should have the common courtesy and judgment– the good judgment– not to be– not to offend other peoples’ faiths. It’s a very bad thing, I think, this guy’s doing.

Now here's the US Embassy statement that Romney, and Fox and the GOP, called apologizing to terrorists:

“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”
— Embassy statement, issued 6 a.m. EST, some six hours before the attack.

So let's compare:

US embassy: "The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims... We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others."

Romney:  "I think people should have the common courtesy and judgment– the good judgment– not to be– not to offend other peoples’ faiths."

Romney just said exactly the same thing that the embassy did, but Romney went one more step.  He said that you should abuse the First Amendment.  Remember, Republicans were upset that the embassy didn't DEFEND the First Amendment.  Romney, went one step further and accused the filmmaker of abusing it.  So there are moral limits on the First Amendment, Romney says.  So is Romney saying the violence was justified?  Well, he's certainly suggesting that the filmmaker doesn't have clean hands here.

This is beyond belief.  If anything, Romney's statement is "worse" than the US embassy statement, because Romney made clear that there are moral limits to the First Amendment.

Under Romney's definition, and Fox's and GOP Chair Reince Priebus, Mitt Romney just apologized to the folks who killed our ambassador.

Just wait a few hours, Romney is going to be backtracking on this entire thing. Read the rest of this post...

Bigoted filmmaker who triggered deaths has shady past

Besides being a hateful bigot, the filmmaker behind the new movie that has triggered riots and the death of a US ambassador is no stranger to trouble. He may have also violated the terms of his probation and is under investigation following the outbreak of violence. NBC News:

A 55-year-old Egypt-born Coptic Christian man living in the Los Angeles area was a key figure behind the anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims," blamed for sparking riots and protests in the Middle East, a federal law enforcement official told NBC News Thursday.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who is on probation after being convicted of financial crimes, also was twice sentenced to jail on drug charges in the late 1990s, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said.

Court records show that Nakoula was convicted on federal fraud charges in Los Angeles in 2010. Among the conditions of his probation, Nakoula was barred from using "any online service at any location" without the prior approval of his probation officer, according to a copy of court records in the case.

Read the rest of this post...

More conservative lies about Libya/Egypt - Romney must be seriously in trouble

Judging by the level of vitriol from every propaganda organ, and politician, in the Republican party today, Mitt Romney must be losing the election badly.

They're in full panic mode.  Coming out with a lie a minute.   I wrote about one earlier tonight.  And another this morning.  But this one is particularly egregious.

According to a British tabloid - and this has already been debunked - everyone knew that the attacks in Libya and Egypt were going to happen and no one did a thing!

Uh right.  So now the "9/11 truthers" are after Obama too.

In fact, according to a spokesman for the head of the entire US intelligence establishment, there wasn't zip.

Shawn Turner, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, emailed: “This is absolutely wrong. We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent.”

But GOP propagandist Matt Drudge was happy to push the story, as will GOP partisan tomorrow.

Anything to change the story from how Mitt Romney pulled and Al Haig and apparently thought he was the head of the US government the other day in the middle of a national security crisis. Romney was roundly rebuked for his arrogance, and the danger he posed to US foreign policy by involving himself in an ongoing crisis. But in GOP-land, that means you find another even bigger lie in order to take attention off of the one you got caught saying earlier.

They are seriously panicking over in Romney-land.

How long until the Republicans bring up Obama's birth certificate again? Read the rest of this post...

AP: Romney lied, as advisers saw Libya/Egypt violence as "opportunity"

AP paints a devastating portrait of a man, Mitt Romney, who jumped the gun, didn't care that he was wrong, and whose staff was giddy that Americans were under attack abroad - while Americans saw death, Team Romney smelled "opportunity."

In Washington, Republican foreign policy veterans called Romney's initial statement premature and rushed, with limited facts and an incomplete understanding of what was happening in Egypt and Libya. Romney's team also was unclear about the timeline of when the Obama administration weighed in.

One Republican official advising Romney's campaign on foreign policy and national security issues painted a picture of a Romney campaign more focused on ensuring Romney's evening statement made it into morning news stories than on waiting for details about what had happened.

This official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering Romney's campaign, said that as word of violence spread, campaign aides late Tuesday watched tweets coming out of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that were criticizing the filmmaker rather than condemning the attackers, and saw an opportunity to criticize Obama.

I've actually never seen this strong a criticism from AP in one of their fact checks. This is one of those times where even the media - which sometimes tries so hard to be objective that they're afraid to call a lie a lie - calls a lie a lie.

For example, AP points out that Romney lied when he claimed that the US embassy issued their statement after the attacks - it was hours before, that's why the statement didn't condemn the violence.  There hadn't been any violence yet.

A damning fact check from AP:

The gunfire at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, had barely ceased when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney seriously mischaracterized what had happened in a statement accusing President Barack Obama of "disgraceful" handling of violence there and at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

"The Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks," Romney said in a statement first emailed to reporters at 10:09 p.m. Eastern time, under the condition it not be published until midnight.

In fact, neither a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo earlier in the day nor a later statement from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered sympathy for attackers. The statement from the Cairo Embassy had condemned anti-Muslim religious incitement before the embassy walls were breached. In her statement, issued minutes before Romney's, Clinton had offered the administration's first response to the violence in Libya, explicitly condemning the attack there and confirming the death of a State Department official.

Oh my God. AP walks you through what happened in a timeline, moment by moment - and it's devastating. Romney got everything wrong, but boy was he willing to jump and be the first one heard on the issue, even as the crisis was unfolding and no one knew what was happening.  Read this entire piece by AP.  It's long, detailed and devastating. Read the rest of this post...

Everything Romney touches about foreign policy goes wrong

Once again, Mitt Romney wades into foreign policy, and once again Mitt Romney screws up.

The UK Olympics

First there was his visit to the UK for the Olympics, where he offended our top ally again, and again, and again. Romney's staff also used the occasion of the foreign trip to take a potshot at the President, something that has traditionally been frowned upon by politicians when traveling abroad.

Poland

Then he went to Poland, and his aide was caught on tape making a vulgar comment at a location holy to the Polish people.

Israel

And finally he went to Israel, where he insulted the Palestinians while suggesting that Jews have some innate talent for making money (in much of the world that's considered an anti-Semitic slur). And then he came back to the US and only days after visiting Israel, Sista Souljah'd the US' top ally in the Middle East by suggesting that the Jewish state was built by socialists, and socialist are very bad un-American people.

Libya/Egypt Violence

And now Mitt Romney wades into something serious. A foreign policy, national security crisis. American lives are on the line. Four Americans are dead. So what does Mitt Romney do? He jumps the gun, and before he has all the facts, he politicizes the crisis, only a few hours old, by taking a partisan potshot at the President. Then, in the face of growing criticism, he holds a press conference in which he smirks the entire time, while speaking of the murder of four Americans, including a US ambassador, and then Romney gets the capital of Libya wrong.

The Scandal Over His Own Foreign Policy Spokesman

The man is a walking time-bomb of foreign policy inexperience, insult, injury and inappropriateness.  Heck, Romney couldn't even hire a foreign policy spokesman with causing an unnecessary controversy.  To suggest that Mitt Romney is in over his head is putting it kindly.  If he has to run for president, he should turn in his passport, keep his mouth shut, and leave our national security to the experts. Read the rest of this post...

Social justice in the classroom? That's crazy talk

It's no secret that American education is in crisis.

So you'd think people would welcome any creative way to give our kids a break, as budgets get squeezed, teachers are laid off, class sizes grow and critical thinking skills give way to rote learning by textbook and standardized test. In fact, creativity is actually flourishing against the odds.

In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has embraced the prestigious International Baccalaureate program in high schools as a way of expanding the educational horizons of the city's best and brightest. And rightly so: U.S. high schools offering the IB program often find themselves on lists of the best schools in the country.

Something else that's no secret, though, is that certain conservatives love a good culture war and rarely miss an opportunity to trumpet ignorance over learning -- on the basis, presumably, that being dumb as dirt is more authentically American than actually knowing anything.  And so, the Republican Party of Minnesota recently decided that it opposes any state or federal funding for IB. And in Idaho, the Coeur d’Alene School District has decided to pull the IB program altogether.

Why? A leading opponent, lawyer Duncan Koler, told the school board last week that the IB is full of “concepts that are politically charged, such as social justice, sustainability. These are code terms." Code for what? Social justice, that is some crazy talk.

What's really going on is a backlash against creativity in education. The International Baccalaureate, we are told, is some sinister UN-backed plot that promotes totalitarian concepts and seeks, in the words of one anti-IB activist, to “program our children’s minds with new loyalties.” Nicky Kram Rosen, the principal of PS 368 in Hamilton Heights in New York City who is putting Arabic on the curriculum next year, is -- according to one scathing local critic -- part of "a cesspool for panderers and anarchists with an international agenda".

The mindset here is so 2003, that miserable year when Arabs were all terrorists, the French -- originators of the Baccalaureate -- were surrender monkeys, and congressmen preferred freedom fries for their lunch. You could even say it's so 1856, when nativists and Know-Nothings fought against the immigrant melting pot in America's growing cities because they thought that foreigners had nothing to contribute but disease, corruption and suspect ideas. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

The fact is, the IB program has won wide international recognition for its exacting standards and the breadth of knowledge and critical thinking it demands of its students. High-schoolers who participate are taught a second language -- really taught a second language. They are encouraged to engage in community service and develop understanding and respect for other cultures, not as an alternative to national identity, but as an essential part of life in the 21st century.

A recent University of Chicago study showed that students in the IB program were 40 percent more likely to go to college. Tell that to the New Hampshire legislature, which made a short-lived attempt earlier this year to introduce an anti-IB bill banning any public school curriculum "subject to the governance of a foreign body or organization". The bill passed the New Hampshire State House but died, thankfully, in the Senate.

To be against the International Baccalaureate is to be against learning itself, because that's the beginning and the end of what it offers. More than 1000 universities -- including the US Air Force Academy, the US Naval Academy, and institutions like Brown University, Columbia University, and Stanford University -- recognize the IB Diploma as a mark of academic excellence.

Last time I checked, these were pretty highly regarded national institutions. The Republican party, less so. Read the rest of this post...

Romney praises Jews' cultural ability to make money

I can see why the Palestinians are ticked, but no Jews have a problem with Romney coming to Israel and praising their "cultural" ability to make money?

Romney said some economic histories have theorized that "culture makes all the difference."

"And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things," Romney said, citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and the "hand of providence." He said similar disparity exists between neighboring countries, like Mexico and the United States.

Palestinian reaction to Romney was swift and pointed.

"It is a racist statement and this man doesn't realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation," said Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Romney's off to Poland next. Get ready for him to praise their contribution to American humor. Read the rest of this post...

Red Cross officially declares Syria a "civil war," fighting in Damascus, airport reportedly closed

Business Insider explains the legal ramifications of the situation now being declared a "civil war" - I didn't realize it made a legal difference:

The conflict in Syria was effectively declared a civil war by the Red Cross on Sunday, as the "most intense" fighting since the start of the uprising was reported in Damascus.

The Red Cross had previously designated Idlib, Homs and Hama as war zones, but the change in status means international humanitarian law applies wherever fighting occurs throughout the country

Combatants will now be officially subject to the Geneva Conventions, and will be more exposed to war crimes prosecutions, after the ICRC declared that the conflict was a "non-international armed conflict", or in lay terms a civil war.

Read the rest of this post...

MP pulls gun on opponent on Jordan TV

More from the Huffington Post on the scene that somehow makes the US gun crazies look relatively normal. Read the rest of this post...

Egyptian president Morsi appoints woman & Coptic

When you hear some of the rhetoric from the past, it's fair to say there was some reason for concern with the potential new government. It shouldn't be difficult to do better than the last corrupt regime but as we've seen many times, it's easy to do worse.

But for now, so far, so good though time will tell.

The Muslim Brotherhood is at pains to calm fears of what an Islamist president might mean for Egypt and the region at large. Appointing both a woman and a Coptic Christian is an attempt at a show of unity, and a rule by consensus.

Meanwhile, defeated presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik – Mubarak's last prime minister and Morsi's rival in the runoff election – flew to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday morning with his two daughters. His camp denied that he had fled as investigations begin into allegations of corruption against him while minister of civil aviation. He was in Abu Dhabi for "tourism" purposes, they said.

Essawy also said that Morsi had no objection to swearing the presidential oath in front of the supreme constitutional court (SCC), widely seen as a controversial move after the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood-majority parliament by that very court a day before the run-off elections earlier this month. But, "that does not mean he [Morsi] acknowledges the dissolution of parliament", said Essawy, a member of Morsi's former party, Freedom and Justice (FJP).

Read the rest of this post...

Mohamed Morsi declared winner in Egyptian elections

The US-educated Morsi will not have the opportunity to make some much needed changes in Egypt. The jury is still out whether the military will allow him to succeed or if the changes will bring actual change.

What's next?

Sixteen months after the fall of his predecessor, the dictator Hosni Mubarak, official election results gave Morsi, a US-educated engineer, 51.7% of the vote against 48.3% for his rival, Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister under Mubarak. The turnout was reported to be 51.6%.

It is the first time that Egypt has been headed by an Islamist in the modern era, and the first time that a freely elected civilian has come to power in the country.

When the final announcement came – after a dense 45-minute preamble from the election chief, Farouk Sultan – it instantly rippled through Tahrir Square, setting off fireworks, flag-waving and chants of "God is greatest". "The revolution was victorious – this feeling cannot be described," said Mahmoud Abdallah. "If Shafiq had won, the past year would have been for nothing. Now we need to fight for the constitution and parliament. Political forces have united now against the anti-revolutionaries and we will win no matter how strong they are."

Read the rest of this post...

Saudi Arabia to fund Syrian opposition forces

Better them than us, though it's highly likely that the US will be more deeply involved than anyone back home would want. As reported by the NY Times, the CIA is already operating inside Syria. The last thing the US needs now is yet another war that we can't afford. After eleven years of war, enough is enough.

The Guardian:

Saudi officials are preparing to pay the salaries of the Free Syria Army as a means of encouraging mass defections from the military and increasing pressure on the Assad regime, the Guardian has learned.

The move, which has been discussed between Riyadh and senior officials in the US and Arab world, is believed to be gaining momentum as a recent flush of weapons sent to rebel forces by Saudi Arabia and Qatar starts to make an impact on battlefields in Syria.

Officials in the Saudi capital embraced the idea when it was put to them by Arab officials in May, according to sources in three Arab states, around the same time that weapons started to flow across the southern Turkish border into the hands of Free Syria Army leaders.

Read the rest of this post...

US & UK discuss safe passage for Assad

Assad needs to be held accountable for the violence and crimes against humanity, though nobody needs a protracted war where even more people die needlessly. The current rumors suggest Putin recognizes that Assad may have a limited future, so it open to finding a resolution. More from The Guardian:

Britain and America are willing to offer the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, safe passage – and even clemency – as part of a diplomatic push to convene a UN-sponsored conference in Geneva on political transition in Syria.

The initiative comes after David Cameron and Barack Obama received encouragement from Russia's President Vladimir Putin in separate bilateral talks at the G20 in Mexico.

A senior British official said: "Those of us who had bilaterals thought there was just enough out of those meetings to make it worth pursuing the objective of negotiating a transitional process in Syria."

In light of the Syrian air force defection today, time may be running out for Assad and his options. Read the rest of this post...

Muslim Brotherhood prepares for protests as US warns Egyptian military

Somehow I think we've been here before. Following the announcements by the Egyptian military, the Muslim Brotherhood is preparing to take to the streets to protest what sounds like considerable overreach by the military.

The announcements proclaimed that the new president would only be transitional and that the military would be fully responsible for their own budget and management, regardless of what the president may or may not do. At the same time, the military reiterated its agreement to hand over power, or at least, whatever power exists outside of the military.

The US has warned the military that failure to hand over power could result in the loss of billions of dollars each year, though the wording and meaning is still vague. While the US is eager to move forward with a new government, there remains a level of concern over what may happen with a Muslim Brotherhood regime.

More from The Guardian on potential street protests in Egypt.

The Muslim Brotherhood has vowed to face down Egypt's ruling generals in a "life or death" struggle over the country's political future, after declaring that its candidate had won the presidential election and would refuse to accept the junta's last-ditch attempts to engineer a constitutional coup.

As final ballot results trickled in and unofficial tallies suggested that Mohamed Morsi had secured approximately 52% of the popular vote, the Brotherhood deployed its harshest language yet against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), promising to bring millions of Egyptians back on to the streets if attempts to rebuild the old regime continued.

"Over the past 18 months we were very keen to avoid any clashes or confrontations with other components of Egypt's political system because we felt that it would have negative consequences for the democratic system and for society as a whole," said Fatema AbouZeid, a senior policy researcher for the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party and a media co-ordinator for the Morsi campaign. "But now it's very clear that Scaf and other institutions of the state are determined to stand in the way of what we're trying to achieve, and we won't accept this any more. Egypt will not go back to the old regime through any means, legal or illegal.

Read the rest of this post...

Egypt elects Muslim Brotherhood president, military takes over

Who didn't see that result happening? The voting was relatively close, with the Brotherhood showing 52% of the vote over the former Mubarak prime minister. Whether this will spur on new protests is now the question at hand. The other question is how the US and other countries will respond now that the military has effectively taken control of Egypt, again.

Leading up to the election, the Brotherhood candidate Morsi had made efforts to reach out to other groups including the Copts (~10% of the Egyptian population) and stressed that he was not seeking revenge, but rather an interest in governing all of Egypt. The Mubarak/military leadership has had limited interest in helping anyone outside of their own.

So one day after the election, we're back in a "wait and see" mode. The election settled the decision of who will be president though it also changed little, if anything. More on the new military powers via The Guardian:

Egypt's generals awarded themselves sweeping political powers in an 11th-hour constitutional declaration that tied the hands of the country's incoming president and cemented military authority over the post-Mubarak era.

The announcement on Sunday night came as early presidential election results put the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi ahead of his rival Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak's final prime minister and an unabashed champion of the old regime. But with thousands of polling stations yet to declare following the two-day runoff vote, the overall winner was too close to call.

Pro-change activists and human rights campaigners said the junta's constitutional declaration – which came just days after judges extended the army's ability to arrest civilians and following the dissolution of the Brotherhood-dominated parliament by the country's top court – rendered the scheduled handover of power to a democratically elected executive meaningless.

Read the rest of this post...

UN confirms previous reports of child torture in Syria

Just because it's not surprising doesn't mean it's any less disgusting.

Children were slaughtered, tortured, sexually attacked and used as human shields by pro-government Syrian forces, according to a damning United Nations report released late on Monday.

"Children were victims of killing and maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence, by the Syrian Armed Forces, the intelligence forces, and the Shabbiha militia," the U.N.'s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy said in a release issued along with the report.

The shabiha are a pro-government militia that recruits largely from the Alawite community- the same Muslim sect as President Bashar Assad. Sunnis, who make up the majority of the rebels, are an estimated 74 percent of the population.

Read the rest of this post...