Bookmarks 09/11/2011

• How MI6 deal sent family to Gaddafi’s jail | World news | The Guardian

  How MI6 deal sent a whole family to Gaddafi’s jail shortly before Tony Blair paid his first visit to the dictator. It is unclear what intelligence value the snatching of this family in Hong Kong has had for the British authorities. The article suggests it may have been a “gift” from the British to the Gaddafi regime.

  tags: guardian the guardian MI6 gaddafi publishtoblog

  • Saadi was held for more than six years, during which time he says he was regularly beaten and subjected to electric shocks. Shortly after his arrival in Tripoli, he says, Moussa Koussa visited in person to explain how Gaddafi’s new friends in the west were helping him track down the regime’s opponents around the world. “He told me: ‘You’ve been running from us, but since 9/11 I can pick up the phone and call MI6 or the CIA and they give us all the information we want on you. You’ve nowhere to hide.'”
  • The UK was involved in the rendition of another Libyan Islamist earlier the same month. Other papers found among the Tripoli cache show that an MI6 tip-off allowed the CIA to abduct Abdul Hakin Belhaj in Bangkok. Belhaj, who later became a leading figure in the rebel forces that toppled Gaddafi, says he was tortured first by the CIA and then flown to Libya where he suffered severe abuse for several years

• TelQuel : Le Maroc tel qu’il est

  Zakaria Boualem et le Maroc à l’âge d’or du monde musulman… On se croirait dans un film de zombies.

  tags: publishtoblog telquel Zakaria Boualem

  • Evidemment, pour qu’un cas de corruption soit avéré, il faut une plainte devant la justice, elle-même corrompue. On est donc foutus, comme dans un film de zombies où il n’y aurait que des zombies.

• Analysis / Crises with Turkey and Egypt represent a political tsunami for Israel – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

  Another fallout of the storming of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo this stupid article in Haaretz: author suggests Arab spring is as much a “threat” for Israel as Iranian supposed nuclear weapons program, calls for alliance with KSA and countries in the Balkans to outflank Turkey.

  tags: publishtoblog egypt israel jan25 haaretz

  • Netanyahu now hopes that Israel might be able to get close with Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States, who also seek to block the possibility of an Arab Spring in the region. In the West, Netanyahu is hoping to circumvent Turkey by strengthening ties with Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. During his visit to the Balkans, he was shown photos and statues of national heros, sent to their deaths by the Ottoman Empire. A real basis for friendship.

     

• On the Israeli embassy incident – Blog – The Arabist

  The Arabist’s take on the Israeli embassy incident of Friday.

  tags: publishtoblog egypt israel jan25

  • The act of entering the embassy was not just illegal (in terms of domestic and international law), it was mindless and showed a poor sense of strategy and priority. It will hurt the credibility of the protest movement at home and abroad, reinforce fears of a country getting out of control domestically, and distract from the more important issue of Egypt’s still uncertain democratic transition. And it will not achieve, beyond the fleeing of most Israeli officials in Egypt for now, much to change the nature of the Egyptian-Israeli relationship. Even with only one senior embassy official remaining, the strategic relations are now taking place chiefly military to military through liaison offices that operate far away from where the embassy is located. This action does nothing to change Egyptian policy, and certainly nothing to help Palestinians, like fully ending the blockade of Gaza would.
  • But what’s worse about the incident is that it shows how the revolution’s positive energy — the desire for better governance, greater democracy and a more dignified foreign policy — is being dissipated.

• Anonymous group releases new Twitter tool | InSecurity Complex – CNET News

  Fed up with mundane trending topics on Twitter? Anonymous launches U.R.G.E. to hijack trending topics on Twitter and help those “serving a cause.”

  It is downloadable here: http://youranonnews.tumblr.com/URGE

  tags: Twitter CNET publishtoblog

  • URGE will allow people to spread the message of Anonymous–including “bashing corrupt politicians,” among other causes–by riding the coattails of trending topics. “This will help raise awareness of problems going on in this world and show people that real problems exist outside of ‘Jersey Shore’ and ‘Sex,'”