As I was preparing to leave Tripoli, I had a conversation with an Algerian British journalist who had just been released from detention by Libyan forces for reporting in the east of the country. He was angry that he had been picked up for doing his job, but didn’t let it color his reporting on the situation. As I had been gleaning …
arab uprisings
Why Egypt’s Generals Need Mubarak – as a Whipping Boy
The decision by Egypt’s current rulers to drag former President Hosni Mubarak and his sons into court next week to investigate allegations of corruption and abuses of power is certainly a crowd-pleaser: The demand for action against the leading lights of the ancien regime had been the key demand of the tens of thousands of protestors who …
NATO Confronts a Crisis in Libya: Its Air War Has Not Dislodged Gaddafi
The split in NATO over its Libya operation ought to come as no surprise: it’s precisely because of the differences within the alliance over the terms and goals of the mission, and the inevitably limiting effect of the alliance’s consensus-based decisionmaking, that France had been reluctant to cede command to NATO in the first place. But …
Why a Cease-Fire Looms in Libya
“From the very beginning we have been asking that the exit of Gaddafi and his sons take place immediately,” said Mustafa Abdul Jalil, leader of Libya’s rebel National Council on Monday, rejecting an African Union ‘roadmap’ to peace that had supposedly been accepted by Colonel Gaddafi. “We cannot consider this or any future proposal that …
Le Monde: Why There’s No Love for the Family of the Arab Spring’s Most Famous Martyr
Below is our first post in partnership with Worldcrunch, an innovative, new global news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in the leading French daily Le Monde.
The Birthplace of the Tunisian Revolution Turns Against Family Of Their Own Famous …
Egypt After Mubarak: More Israel-Friendly Than Expected
The aftermath of the Egyptian revolution continues to offer Israel more comfort than many expected – but also, over the weekend, a warning.
The latest good news is a poll. Despite fears that the demise of President Hosni Mubarak would also spell the end of Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, nearly two-thirds of Egyptians in a …
How to Understand the Responsibility to Protect
Since the international community found itself stepping in to try to stem burgeoning humanitarian disasters in Libya and the Ivory Coast, much has been made of the principles behind the interventions. A cadre of liberal internationalists (in Europe, often lapsed socialists) saw in the two countries — particularly in Libya — a mandate …
U.S. Faces a Libya Stalemate, What are its Options?
That which has been obvious for some time now is finally being officially acknowledged: Libya’s power struggle is stalemated, and is likely to remain that way on the basis of the current level of NATO commitment. That was the grim assessment in congressional testimony Thursday by General Carter Ham, the U.S. commander who led the initial …
Sarkozy Goes to War: Is France Back Once More at the Center of World Affairs?
France’s predominant role in international operations like the NATO-led mission over Libya–or this week’s United Nations helicopter strikes in Ivory Coast–have generated a flurry of media reports suggesting formerly Clark Kent-like French diplomats have shed their earlier mild mannered restraint, and have started wading into …
Why Goldstone’s ‘Edit’ Won’t Ease Pressure on Israel
Judge Richard Goldstone’s Sunday op ed in the Washington Post reconsidering the allegation in his 2009 UN report that Israel had deliberately targeted Palestinian civilians in its 2008/9 Gaza war was greeted with premature euphoria in Israeli circles. Goldstone himself made clear, Wednesday, that he has no intention of withdrawing any …
Erased from Existence: Travels in a City Purged of Rebellion
The town of Zawiyah has been cleansed of dissent. A rebel stronghold in the early days of the revolt against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, this oil town on the western coast of Libya was the site of a pitched street battle that culminated in a rout that saw scores of antiregime protesters killed and hundreds more injured. Fresh green …
In Gaddafi’s Tripoli, Visions of Doomsday and an Endgame
Such is the hothouse atmosphere of the Rixos Hotel, where the Tripoli press corps remains imprisoned by the Gaddafi regime, that any new source of information, be it a shopkeeper in a bazaar who manages to slip out a disparaging word about Libya’s leader or a rumor of the man himself out in the streets, sends reporters into a frenzied …
Libya Peace Negotiations Are Already Underway
That Libya’s epic struggle for power has slipped quietly out of the headlines is not surprising, in a media culture with limited attention span and an addiction to tidy (and preferably happy) endings. Libya is looking unlikely to provide either anytime soon: A military stalemate is unlikely to be broken by a rebel force of limited …