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Monday
Feb272012

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Referendum Amidst the Deaths

Residents of Baba Amr in Homs, under siege for the 24th straight day, stage their version of Sunday's referendum on a new Constitution

See also Turkey Special: The Government Supports a Hyper-Nationalist --- and Threatening --- Protest
Sunday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "I'm So Hungry. I Think I Will Die" --- Then the Line Went Dead


2153 GMT: At the end of the day, the two Western journalists who remain injured in the Baba Amr district of Homs have not been rescued. However, the Red Cross did manage to remove three injured Syrians from the besieged district:

A negotiator in the evacuation efforts said they fell through "at the last minute after ambulances had entered Baba Amr" but declined to specify if regime forces or rebels had blocked the operation.

2146 GMT: The on-line magazine Mother Jones has received a document that they say was leaked from someone inside the Syrian government and contains more than 700 pages of names of activists who have been placed on a government "kill list." A series of experts whom Mother Jones shared the document with believe it is genuine:

Joshua Landis, a scholar on Syria who has consulted for the State Department and other US government agencies, said he thinks the document merges the records of several Syrian intelligence agencies in order to better coordinate the crackdown. "This is what a secret service does," he said. Actions allegedly taken by individuals in the document—such as setting up a roadblock near Homs or issuing instructions about how to attack a Syrian military outpost—are "the kind of thing that people get whacked for all the time, or at least tortured for."

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Monday
Feb272012

Turkey Special: The Government Supports a Hyper-Nationalist --- and Threatening --- Protest


On Sunday in Taksim Square in Istanbul, there was a large demonstration organised by various NGOs, syndicates, and political parties and supported by the Turkish government. The vision was that tens of thousands of Turks would commemorate the anniversary of the Khojaly massacre, committed against Azerbaijanis by Armenian armed forces in Nagorno-Karabagh in 1992.

The reality turned out to be somewhat different.

The memorial became a charged nationalist occasion, not only emphasising Turkish and Azerbaijani identity, but also displaying hatred and racism towards Armenians and those Turkish citizens, mostly left-wing intellectuals, who have been discussing the Armenian genocide/massacre of the early 20th century.

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Monday
Feb272012

Afghanistan Opinion: The How, Why, and Hope Around the "Quran Burning" Protests

Photo: Akhtar Soomro (Reuters)There is a tiny, almost miniscule, shift this time, I have noticed a small number of young Afghan professionals quietly criticise the protests. Their voices are so faint, their numbers so low that this by no means can be considered an event. But, given the silence before this, it is a near-miracle.

What those coy this-is-not-rightsand we-shouldn't-be-protesting gave me and others like me is a glimmer of almost unreachable hope. Maybe this is the beginning of a small, on-line progressive movement that seeks a voice. Maybe it is just frustrated young men and women who will be bullied back into conformity, but it is a change.

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Monday
Feb272012

Iran Video and Pictures: "A Separation" Wins Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film


UPDATE 2015 GMT: Director Ashgar Farhadi's interview after the Oscars ceremony, including his assessment of the regime's reaction to his film's award:

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Sunday
Feb262012

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "I'm So Hungry. I Think I Will Die" --- Then the Line Went Dead

The rise of protest in Syrian's second city Aleppo --- despite gunfire, demonstrators pursue a police car on Saturday

See also Bahrain Videos: 10,000s at Friday's Opposition Rally "A Nation That Refuses Humiliation"
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Intervention is Here


2020 GMT: A tour of the streets of Baba Amr in Homs in Syria, damaged by 23 straight days of regime shelling:

1735 GMT: The opposition Syrian National Council has issued a press statement calling for the "rejection of sectarianism" and reached out to the Alawite minority --- of whom President Assad and most of the regime elite are members --- as "an essential part of the Syrian fabric".

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Sunday
Feb262012

The Latest from Iran (26 February): Bashing the BBC, Jailing the Journalists

See also Iran Opinion: Myth and Reality About Nuclear Ambitions
Iran Snapshot: When the Revolutionary Guards Confuse Computer Viruses with Condoms
Iran Snapshot: Kentucky Fried Chicken or No Kentucky Fried Chicken? That is the Question
The Latest from Iran (25 February): A Far-from-Simple Election


Journalist Marzieh Rassouli (see 0550 GMT)2028 GMT: CyberWatch. The "Hezbollah Cyber Army" hacked the website of the reformist Assembly of Combatant Clerics today to post the message: "I participate in elections. With God's wisdom, the great Iran nation will put supporters of the US line of an election boycott in their place."

The Assembly has already replaced the text with a quote from former President Mohammad Khatami, "Nothing will appease people but ruling their fate themselves."

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Sunday
Feb262012

Iran Snapshot: When the Revolutionary Guards Confuse Computer Viruses with Condoms

UPDATE 1400 GMT: The news gift that keeps giving.... Gerdab has changed its site, but only compounded its Trojan error --- see below.


Gerdab is a high-profile website connected with the Revolutionary Guards. In its daily quest for vigilance and strength, it promotes the accomplishments of Iran's armed forces and calls for the latest in defence against hard war, cyber-war, and soft war.

On occasion, however, the demands on even the most dedicated cyber-fighter can be a bit too much. 

Consider, for example, this weekend's article about the dangers of the enemy's computer viruses, specifically "Trojans". That's an understandable concern, given the alleged attack on Iran's nuclear facilities by the Stuxnet worm in 2010 and reports that the US and Israel are pursuing updated variants.

The problem, however, is that --- in its attempt to illustrate the threat --- Gerdab chose a far different kind of Trojan, one not designed for a "soft war":

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Sunday
Feb262012

Iran Opinion: Myth and Reality About Nuclear Ambitions (Osborne)

An interesting push-back in The New York Times on Saturday against the hyperbole and soundbites that can dominate the "news" about Iran's nuclear programme. The newspaper's specialists on intelligence matter, James Risen and Mark Mazzetti, outlined, "U.S. Agencies See No Move by Iran to Build a Bomb".

Meanwhile, Matt Osborne takes apart last week's fraught headlines, amidst tension between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Tehran and defiant announcements by the Supreme Leader, to assess the Iranian "threat".


Media Matters asks exactly the right question: why has Iran been “just months away” from developing thermonuclear weapons for so many years?

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Sunday
Feb262012

Bahrain Videos: 10,000s at Friday's Opposition Rally "A Nation That Refuses Humiliation"


If tens of thousands of people protest but the media is elsewhere, do they make a sound?

With attention focused on Syria --- and, it must be said, with no tear gas and violence to grab a headline --- press and broadcasters may have overlooked the rally called on Friday by Bahrain's main opposition societies, "A Nation That Refuses Humiliation".

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Sunday
Feb262012

On the Road in the USA: Trees at the "Right Height", Bottle-Opening Flip-Flops, and Cole-Slaw Wrestling

However many trips I make to the US, I am always astonished by something new. Sometimes it’s the politics, sometimes it's the gadgets. More often than not, it's the culture. 

Last week, Mitt Romney was campaigning in Michigan, his home state, as he tries to secure the Republican nomination for President. He looked happy and relaxed as he took the podium as he declared, “I love this state. I was born here. The trees here are just the right height.”

Sprawled on my daughter’s couch, I sprang to life. “What did he say? He did not say that, did he?” I asked those nearby. They confirmed I had heard correctly.

I needed to ask questions. Were Republican “values” to be applied to trees? Under a Romney Administration, what would happen to those states whose trees were too short, or too tall, or heaven forefend, too wide? Sadly, I could not find a GOP spokesman to whom I could address these questions, and I was too scared to go online in case the Republican Tree Police caught me and tried to have me deported.

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