Christopher Hitchens recounts being witness to some of the most dramatic political transitions of the past several decades and concludes that Egypt and the Arab world generally lack the conditions necessary to complete a revolution. He writes that none of the Arab movements possess unifying leaders, proto-structures or visions for government or even the experience with civil society that helped other countries obtain democracy. The piece dates itself to early ...

Steven Cook, of the Council on Foreign Relations, heavily criticized Monday's Washington Post article on U.S. funding to Syrian opposition figures and groups.  He says that the tone of the article makes U.S. intentions and actions regarding democracy promotion sound "sinister" despite USAID and State Department programs like MEPI (Middle East Partnership Initiative) having broad, public bi-partisan support.  Cook states: "The Post turned something for which Americans should rightly be ...

Previously undisclosed Wikileaks cables say that the U.S. State Department has been funding Syrian opposition groups and related projects since 2006. The cables show that the Movement for Justice and Development, a London-based group of Syrian exiles and liberal Islamists, received $6 million from the U.S. The movement is affiliated with a satellite television network, Barada TV. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said he could not speak to the content of ...

American commentators have criticized the Obama administration's "tepid" response to violence in Syria, as well as Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referring to Assad as a "reformer."   In contrast, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), ranking member of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, said "Assad is not a reformer. Anyone who thinks so is at best fooling ...

Michele Penner Angrist addressed the future of democracy in Tunisia stating, "Ben Ali suffocated the political arena to such a degree that there is no force capable of governing Tunisia other than the ruling party and the military." Angrist also discussed the implications of the lack of US involvement in Tunisia's unrest and the future of other Arab regimes, "Were the regimes in Egypt or Jordan on the line, Western support for ...

In an interview with David Lepeska in the Columbia Journalism Review, Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Eissa notes that in an effort to control  Al Dostor, the government has filed lawsuits, imprisoned Eissa, and threatened the paper’s publishers with millions of pounds in taxes. After finally taking over the paper, Al Dostor is now “a pet newspaper.” He states that although there was a period of increasing media freedom in Egypt during ...

In a new article in the Foreign Service Journal,  Robert McMahon explores the ongoing efforts of American broadcasters to  reach Iranians, even as the regime expands pressure on independent media. Voice of America’s Persian News Network satellite TV station and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) Radio Farda--two broadcasters funded by Congress--have been expanding their reach into social media. "The regime denounces these media efforts as a 'soft war' waged by outside ...

Last night, President Barack Obama gave a speech from the Oval Office that declared the end of combat operations in Iraq (transcript). Reactions to the speech were varied. At Commentary, Jennifer Rubin describes the President's reiteration of the deadline for withdrawal in Afghanistan and his remarks on the economy as, "...unhelpful, ungracious, and downright inaccurate...", while Nick Gillespie at Reason laments that, "Politics is a marathon game of blaming the guy ...

President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver a nationally televised address tonight marking the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq. While the drawdown is significant, a large number of troops will remain: "...Americans need to understand that our troops are needed to assist the Iraqis on security matters..." notes the Wall Street Journal, adding "It would be a tragedy if after seven years of sacrifice, the U.S. now failed ...

Khaled Abu Toameh writing for the Hudson Institute in New York lambasts what he describes as Western media's "hypocritical approach" to covering human rights abuses in the Arab world. According to Toameh, the media leaps to report on stories of Israeli abuse against Arabs, while largely refusing to cover human rights violations committed against Arabs by their own dictatorial states. Toameh says that "the mainstream media in the US, Canada ...

In the wake of country-wide opposition protests on the Shiite holy day Ashura, the BBC reports that the Iranian regime has barred all Iranian citizens from "cooperating with foreign organizations it says are trying to destabilize the government." Among the 60 groups included on the list are Human Rights Watch, Yale University, opposition website Rahesabz, U.S.-funded broadcasters, and the BBC itself.According to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, President Ahmadinejad tried to downplay the power of the recent protests by ...

As part of the Council on Foreign Relations' Edward Murrow 60th anniversary fellowship celebration, several American journalists discussed their career experiences reporting from foreign countries with closed societies. The panelists included Dan Southerland of Radio Free Asia, David Remnick of The New Yorker, Caryle Murphy is an independent journalist currently working in Saudi Arabia and finally Elizabeth Rubin of The New York Times Magazine. Margaret Warner of NewsHour with Jim Lehrer presided. While the ...

Ibrahim El-Houdaiby, writing for the Daily News Egypt, makes the case that Western media is very selective in its coverage of Middle East and Muslim issues. While El-Houdaiby begins by criticizing coverage of the murder of Marwa El-Sherbini, who was stabbed to death in a German courtroom, he argues that selective coverage extends to much larger-scale events: “There has been harsh criticism for Tehran’s regime for its crackdown on demonstrators. I ...

Al Jazeera, the Doha-based news network, has expanded its English-language broadcasting in the U.S. The network had experienced difficulty forging deals with U.S. cable distributors following accusations by individuals such as former vice-president Dick Cheney that it was "the mouthpiece of Osama Bin Laden." The network is now available in the Washington DC area, as of July 1st. Viewers who desire coverage in their own area are encouraged to visit www.iwantaje.net.

Drawing criticism from some senior clerics over the way it has handled the fallout from last month's elections, Iran is reported to have hanged six supporters of presidential candidate and opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The Jerusalem Post also reports a serious public crackdown on Iranians Monday by Basij militiamen and their female counterparts, the Sisters of Zeynab. Moreover, accounts of prison overcrowding and prisoner abuse have emerged. The swelling rift among ...

Reuters has just reported that the U.S. Department of State has acknowledged that it asked Twitter, the social networking service, to delay scheduled upgrades so as not to disrupt the Iranian opposition's communications. The upgrades, which were to have taken place Monday night, would have occurred during daylight hours in Iran and interfered with reformists' ability to organize. As the Iranian government has limited cellphone and internet service since last ...

On the tail of the largest demonstrations in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which left a reported seven protesters dead, the Council of Guardians has announced that it will order a partial recount of disputed ballots in Friday's elections, but will not annul the vote as had been requested by Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mohsen Rezaie, two of the challengers in the presidential election that was allegedly a massive victory ...

The Committee to Protect Journalists and the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, both of which are media watchdog groups, have issued a letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki calling for greater protection of journalists. Although it acknowledges the progress in the Iraqi media since 2003, the letter cites an unsafe security environment and governmental intimidation and harassment of journalists as intolerable threats to press freedom. The letter calls on the government ...

William A. Rugh has a good article at Arab Media and Society about improving America's image in the Middle East. While the last few years have seen improvements, overall American public diplomacy is not being utilized to its full potential. Rugh advises a continuation of engagement with Arab media - President Obama's interview on Al Arabiya is a step in the right direction. He also suggests reforming the Broadcasting Board ...