Friday
Oct142011
Syria Video Special: Friday's Protests Around the Country
Halfaya area of Hama, with the burning of a Russian flag
Tanks move into Inkhil in the south
Friday
Oct142011
Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: News Seeps Out of Deaths
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 14:49 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Friday
Oct142011
Occupy Wall Street: The Victory at Liberty Park This Morning
The moment when protesters in New York's Zuccotti Park, renamed Liberty Park by the demonstrators, learned New York City authorities were backing away from their forced evacuation of the park for cleaning
See also Occupy Wall Street: LiveStream of Today's Demonstration and Developments
Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond) Analysis: The Tea Party Is Outraged, Mocking...and Worried
CNN reports:
A cleaning planned for the Manhattan park where "Occupy Wall Street" protesters have camped out for weeks has been postponed, a move that averts a showdown between demonstrators and police.
The New York mayor's office said Brookfield Properties, the owners of Zuccotti Park, told the city late Thursday the scheduled cleaning is off for now and "for the time being" they are "withdrawing their request" made earlier in the week for police assistance during the cleaning operation.
Friday
Oct142011
The Latest from Iran (14 October): The Plot and Beyond
See also Iran 6-Point Analysis: Obama and the Regime Walk Tightropes Over the Plot
Manssor Arbabsiar1755 GMT: Parliament Watch. A sharp extract from the resignation letter of MP Ali Motahari, who is leaving Parliament because of its failure to interrogate the President, "The Supreme Leader's interference in Majlis matters is not advisable."
1748 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Mehr names three more companies, all in Qazvin Province, in the $2.6 billion bank fraud: Setaregan Amir Mansour, Tejarat Gostar, and Amir Mansour Iranian.
Friday
Oct142011
Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond) Analysis: The Tea Party Is Outraged, Mocking...and Worried
Occupy Wall Street last night outside Cipriani's, where New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was at a gala dinner (Photo: J.B. Nicholas/Splash News)
See also Occupy Wall Street Special: Canadian Caption Writer Goes Rogue and Takes Down Celebrities
Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond): Is It Now "We are the World"?
Understandably, various Tea Party and conservative groups have looked on in alarm the last few days as the Occupy Wall Street protests threaten to displace them as the "authentic" voice of citizens' dissatisfaction with politics as usual in the US.
For more than two years, the Tea Party has been able, with some justification, to claim it is speaking for a "forgotten" America, but the emergence of groups throughout the country representing the “99%” of Americans has called into question what the Tea Party were beginning to regard as their unchallenged mandate to change Washington.
Friday
Oct142011
Iran 6-Point Analysis: Obama and the Regime Walk Tightropes Over the Plot
There is an important conclusion which goes far beyond any assessment of the Plot. With this response, the US has thrown back the attempt by President Ahmadinejad to renew discussions on Iran's nuclear programme, expressed in a series of public signals in New York last month.
For now, the Americans will be using stick, stick, and more stick not only over the nuclear issue --- which is no longer the leading symbol for US-Iran relations --- but over co-operation rather than political conflict in the region and beyond. If there is going to be any carrot of direct talks with Tehran, it will only follow the region's self-humbling with an admission of guilt for The Plot.
Thursday
Oct132011
Yemen 1st-Hand: In Taiz, Even the Women Carry Guns
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 12:31 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
Young Woman in Taiz "You've Got a Problem?" (Yemen Times)For the inhabitants of Taiz the first hours of the night are a living hell as they anxiously anticipate the armed conflict between the regime and armed opposition to start once again. Nights have been like this for months.
Signs of militarization have spread through the streets and even the women are carrying guns and rifles. The violence has spilled over from the revolution’s Freedom Square and security installations to almost every street and alley. And many innocent civilians have been killed in the process.
Thursday
Oct132011
Libya, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Victors as Abusers?
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 9:25 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Protesters in the Barzeh district of Damascus chant, "We don't bow down except to God"
2034 GMT: The Local Coordinating Committees of Syria have released a statement describing the events that took place today in Syria:
The Governorate of Idlib has witnessed a fierce military campaign that involved the death of several dozen martyrs from the village of Binnish alone, along with dozens of forced disappearances and arrests. Most of the villages and towns in the Idlib Governorate reported gunfire and a complete shutdown of telephone, satellite, and Internet communicatons.
In Binnish, a massive number of mourners, including more than 10,000 people who were able to travel in from neighboring villages, came out to hold funerals for the martyrs.
Nighttime demonstrations began all over Saraqeb and Idlib proper, and continued in a number of Governorates. In the Damascus suburbs, protesters came out in Douma, Harasta, Saqba, Zamalka, Daraya, Irbeen, Kafrbatna, and Jdeidet Artouz. Protesters were chanting for the toppling of the regime and for the victory of Homs and the cities under siege.
Homs, Daraa, and other neighborhoods were also subjected to a major military campaign, according to activists and confirmed by the LCCS:
Homs, as usual, did not fail to hold nighttime demonstrations; protesters came out in most neighborhoods. Security forces responded by firing on protesters in Dablan, Insha’at, and Khaldieh. In Hawla, Ghouta, and Qasir, security forces injured two protesters. Even Rastan held nighttime demonstrations, and today Homs experienced new kidnappings: Mrs. Sawsan Al-Saghir, her daughter Qamar Al-Rajab, and Mrs. Al-Rajab’s 1-year old twins Bahaa and Diaa were kidnapped.The Shabbiha kidnapped them from their home in Bayada.
In Qamishli, Deir Ezzor, Bokamal, Daraa, Basr Al-Harir, Hirak, Hara, and Daeel, thousands protested. Security forces fired on protesters in the Jabileh neighborhood to disperse them.
People in Douma, the Qadam neighborhood in Damascus, Homs, and Rastan were all subjected to a campaign of random arrests.
Thursday
Oct132011
The Latest from Iran (13 October): Bank Fraud, Supreme Leader, Assassination Plot
See also Iran Terror Special: What We Know, What We Don't Know
Iran Opinion: The Plot --- What the US Got Wrong
The Latest from Iran (12 October): A Plot to Kill the Saudi Ambassador?
2112 GMT: The AP has posted the video of US President Barack Obama answering a question about whether he though that the Supreme Leader knew of the plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, and whether he believed this was an act of war. James Miller notes that Obama stops far short of that accusation, instead saying that the Iranian government needs to be responsible for the actions of its members. The video starts mid-answer, but the most important details are there:
1715 GMT: The Plot. President Obama has told reporters that the alleged plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador to the US is "not just a dangerous escalation, this is part of a pattern of dangerous and reckless behavior by the Iranian government". He said it was a sign of how Iran has "been outside of accepted norms of international behavior for far too long" and asserted the US will work with international partners and take steps to ensure that Iran "pays a price".
Thursday
Oct132011
Occupy Wall Street Special: Canadian Caption Writer Goes Rogue and Takes Down Celebrities
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 7:13 | Scott Lucas in EA USA, Journalism and Media, Music and Culture, US Economy, US Politics See also Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond): Is It Now "We are the World"?
Determined champion of the underclasses Jeremy Piven wore three shades of grey to the second annual Art Mere/Art Pere Night in West Hollywood last week.
Cherie Walters, 58, wore one shade of unironic defiance to the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in New York City last week.